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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "orthodox.scompany@collector.org" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
- They don't notify winners by email.
- You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
- They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
- They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
- They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
- They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
- They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
Fraud email example:
From: Sobegi Oil/Gas Company <tlsqn-fukuoka-SEC.@shirt.ocn.ne.jp>
Reply-To: "orthodox.scompany@collector.org" <orthodox.scompany@collector.org>
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2016 00:29:44 +0900 (JST)
Subject: You are lucky
Attention: Lucky Winner.
We are pleased to inform you, the beneficiary who owns this email address, about the release of the awaited delayed result, of our international promotion sweepstakes program held on 05/12/15. The results were released on the 22/ 12/15.
We the management and staff of sobegi Multi-national Oil Company have your email address as a winner in our end of year email balloting promotion through our random email selection and have deposited automated teller machine (atm) visa card of €950.000.00 in the custody of Security Company which we kept for you, due to we did not hear from you since then we decided to deposit your ATM CARD with the security company for security reasons.
Therefore contact the management of the security company below with your valid receiving address and ask them to direct you on how to receive your ATM CARD.
Name: Dr.Jim Micheal
Email: orthodox.scompany@collector.org
Yours in service,
FROM THE P.R.O
S. Oil And Gas Company
Mrs. Isbatou Eric
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Anti-fraud resources:
