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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- "barrister" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "chambers" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- arnoldlucus@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: verni@fuu-assist.jp
Reply-To: arnoldlucus@aim.com
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2016 15:06:49 -0700
Subject: Congratulations
Dear beneficiary,
My name is Ugo Verni, I won One Hundred and Thirty Million Euro and I have commenced our Donation and Grant since I have been touched to donate part of my winnings to
charity through you for the good work of humanity as I have been ill for some time and do not know if I can survive this illment which is presently eating me up. I do
not know if I am going to survive and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum of one million euro to you and five(5) other families each as part of my charity
project to improve the lot of 5 unknown lucky individuals all over the world plus family and give back to the local communities.
You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/6076838/Italian-wins-130m-in-Europes-biggest-ever-lottery-prize.html
Your email address was luckily selected using a balotting system and you received this email because we accepted you as a lucky beneficiary.
Kindly contact Barrister Arnold Lucus/arnoldlucus@aim.com (Zenit Chambers) with Code: NYMJ6814 and also fill the below information and return via email so that he can process your funds
for disbursement.
1) Your Full Names:
2)Resident Address:
3)Telephone Number:
Good luck,
Ugo Verni.
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