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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!
Fraud email example:
From: "WhatsApp Inc" <mails@handicraftghar.com>
Reply-To: pcsalem@pcsalem.com
Date: 13 Feb 2018 07:02:23 -0800
Subject: Your WhatsApp Winning Streak Prize $5,500.000M USD
WhatsApp Inc.
1601 Willow Road
Menlo Park, California 94025
United States of America
www.whatsapp.com
Dear valued Customer
We are pleased to inform you that your Mobile Telephone Number
won $5,500.000 USD (Five Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars)
in the WhatsApp Inc Winning Streak 178 International SMS Raffle.
All participants were selected randomly from the International
Mobile Directory through an Electronic Ballot System for
promotional program aimed at encouraging WhatsApp users Customers
World-Wild as sponsored by Facebook Inc.
For security and claiming of your winning prize
kindly reconfirm your index database below
1.) Full name:………………. 2.) Age:………………… 3.) Sex:……………….. 4.)
Address:……………. 5.) Winning mobile number:……………………………6.)
State/province:……………………….
7.) Country:……………………………..8.) Phone: …………………..9.)
Occupation/position:……………..
Note: Mistake of data collection will or Double claim will lead
to disqualification. We will process your funds release as soon
as you send the required details. You are kindly advised to keep
your winning information confidential until your claim is
processed and your money remitted to you.
Yours faithfully
Mr. Jan Koum Co-Founded WhatsApp Inc
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Anti-fraud resources:
