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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:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "very confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a 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.
- promoteam300@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Google Online Award Promo." <roberthawks299@gmail.com>
Reply-To: robert.hh90@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 08 Aug 2020 21:31:03 -0700
Subject: Google Online Award Promo Team!,
Congratulations!!
Your Email Address have been selected as one (1) of (10) winners in this month’s Google Grant online splash promo selected from The Middle East/Asian/Australian region by our Internet
processing unit. Our Ten (10) winners have been selected from five continents currently connected to the Google network. Award is attached to ticket number (5647600545189) and ballot number (BT: 12052006/20).
Please, keep your winning information's very confidential from the public for security reasons, as we have had cases where the last winners complain of someone else claiming their prize.
Your User name as the 5th beneficiary in this promo was chosen at random by our Digital Random Internet Processing Service Asia Pacific and your reward is coming from the interests generated from advertising and copyrights from the Google network. Congratulations once again from Google award department. You are entitled to a surprise package worth the sum of $950,000. (Nine Hundred and fifty thousand dollars Only).
Contact Our Online Award Coordinator directly with the below information;
Names:-------------?
Residential Contact Address:----------?
Country/Nationality:-------------?
Phone Number:--------------?
Email Address:------------------?
Ticket Number:--------------------?
Ballot Number {BT}:----------------?
How Do You Feel As A Winner:---------?
=================================
Mr. Thomas Thurman
Google Online Award Coordinator
Contact Email: promoteam300@gmail.com
Send your information to this email :promoteam300@gmail.com
=================================
Claims instructions and payment advice will be notified to all winners through our Online Award Coordinator.
Sincerely
Robert Hawks
Fiduciary Agent
Google Online Award Promo Team!
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Anti-fraud resources:
