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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:
- "claim agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- 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: "Facebook Winnings" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ayomide9958@outlook.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2017 10:05:39 -0700
Subject: Good Day Sir/Ma
Hello.
I am a Facebook Online Claim Agent, I am assigned by Mr. Mark Zuckerberg to send you an email and pass a vital information to you regarding your Facebook Account. Have you been informed about your Facebook winnings ?
I am so happy for you because your Facebook account has been chosen among the listed Facebook account that won the sum of $ 500,000 USD,
this amount is given to large Facebook active users and appreciate them for using our platform / service.
Your name was selected by Automatic Random Machine, which your Facebook user name show up on number 7th from the 13 lucky listed names, I want you to know that your winning prize is 100% real and legit and the United state FBI is also aware of this lottery
Here are some pictures of our past winners attached to this email also with your Assurance Letter.
In other to claim your winnings, You have to provide this information to re-confirm your details on our Database in which the Facebook Board
will make use to get your Winning Certificate and all necessary document available for you.
Full Name:
Full Home address:
Country:
Age:
Occupation:
Mobile Number:
Email Address:
Best Regards.
Mrs Victoria Evans Ayomide.
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Anti-fraud resources:
