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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:
- "hundred thousand united states dollars" (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)
- "united state of america" (this email uses bad English)
- 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.
- contactcompensationofficer@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Engineer Bennie Honeycutt" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <contactcompensationofficer@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2019 03:34:25 +0430
Subject: Your email address has brought you luck!!!
Attention winner
How are you today and i hope all is well with you and your family? I hope this mail meets you in a perfect condition.
Due to your effort, using Internet programs indoor and in your office, World Internet Programs want to compensate you and show our gratitude to you with the sum of $500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand United States Of America Dollars) for the year 2019 bonanza world Internet draw.
This is from a total cash prize of $500,000.00 (five Hundred Thousand United states dollars) given to the first TEN (10) people who will be compensated in the world Internet program yearly winnings.
Your winning reference number is: WIP06379
All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over 5,000.00 companies and individuals. I am using this opportunity to thank you for using the Internet daily. The Name and contact Address of the agent (Dispatch Officer) is as follows;
Name: Mr. Henry Scott
Email: (contactcompensationofficer@gmail.com)
Phone number: (805) 978-9773
Finally remember that I have forwarded instruction to Mr. Henry Scott on your behalf to send the cash prize of Five Hundred Thousand United State of America Dollars to you as soon as you contact him.
Please make sure you contact him using your winning reference number: WIP06379
Have a wonderful day.
Best regards coming from Engineer. Bennie Honeycutt
©2019 World Internet Programs
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Anti-fraud resources:
