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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.
- 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.
- facebookawarddepartment182@gmail.com (Gmail/GoogleMail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: Facebook Claim Director/Douglas Foundation <swa123don@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: <facebookawarddepartment182@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2017 10:21:17 +0100
Subject: Dear Winner
Dear Winner
I am pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final indoor draws held by Facebook group in cash promotion to encourage the usage of Facebook worldwide.
Your name was among the 16 lucky winners who won this through email for stafty $250,000.00USD(Two Hundred And FiftyThousand Dollars) each on the Facebook group promotion award attached To Lucky Number (FB-4441137/07), Ticket Number (FB77510433/07), Batch Number (FB-1044365641) and Serial Number (FB-4441137/244,you are further Advise to fill the following so the Claim Department can Reach you directly and instruct you how you can claim your winning.
1. Full home address
2. Mobile Number:
3. Occupation
4. Email
5. A photo of a government issued ID
6. country
To get a response from the Claim Department direct all response to <facebookawarddepartment182@gmail.com>.
Regard
Facebook Claim Director/Douglas Foundation
Reed Hastings.
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Anti-fraud resources:
