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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.
- enquire.jeremy01@gmail.com (Gmail/GoogleMail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
- jeremy allison google foundation board (uk) email: enquire.jeremy01@gmail.com email: mrjeremyallison.ggle@gmail.com (Gmail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: Google Awards <accounts@zuona.mnl>
Reply-To: <remittdeppt22@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2018 12:19:15 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re-Award Notice
Re-Award Notice
Google United Kingdom
Website: www.google.org
We wish to congratulate you on this note for being selected as a major
customer this year.
This promotion was set-up to encourage the active users of Google search
engine and the Google ancillary services and confirmed by our co-sponsors
Visa*/MasterCard* International.
Google is now the biggest search engine Worldwide and in an effort to make
sure that it remains the most widely used search engine, we ran an online
e-mail beta test which your email address won Eight Hundred and Sixty-Four
Thousand Great British Pounds.
Do e-mail the Foundation Board office at once with the Verification and
Funds release form for validation of your grant.
You are also advised to contact our Google Payment Representative (Mr.
Jeremy Allison via the above email) with the following details attached to
this email to avoid unnecessary delay and complications.
CONTACT:
.....................................................
Name: Mr. Jeremy Allison
Google Foundation Board (UK)
Email: enquire.jeremy01@gmail.com
Email: mrjeremyallison.ggle@gmail.com
.....................................................
Sincerely,
Sundar Pichai
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
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Anti-fraud resources: