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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:
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- ",500,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "claimsagent@cyber-phone.eu" (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!
- 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.
- e-totto@volny.cz (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "E - LOTTO PRIZE AWARDS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <E-Totto@volny.cz>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2017 03:12:40 +0100
Subject: Congratulations to you????
THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR E - LOTTO PRIZE AWARD DEPT.
We are pleased to inform you of the email reward program for internet users. Your email address was the star pick from the automated ballot system and by Virtue of this pick, you are entitled to receive the grand reward of two Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars.
***********************************************
This is a reward program for the patronage of internet services and all email addresses entered for the promotional draws were randomly selected from an internet resource database of registered software and domain users. This promotional draw was conducted in Spain, but email entries were drawn on a global basis.
***********************************************
*Ref Number: RGM/1313-101
*Batch Number: 444821545-NL/2017
*Ticket Number: PP 3812 /2017
*Winning Amount : $2,500,000.00.USD
***********************************************
As our star winner, you are immediately advised to contact our claims agent with the contact details:
Name: Mr. Thomas Freeman.
Email: claimsagent@cyber-phone.eu
Phone: 0032 675 479 6696
Congratulations once again.
Yours Faithfully,
Mr. Hass Andel
THE DIRECTOR E - LOTTO PRIZE AWARD DEPT
Email: E-Totto@volny.cz
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Anti-fraud resources:
