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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "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)
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- 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: MICROSOFT COMPANY <michealcena23@gmail.com>
Reply-To: microsoftcompany813@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 20 May 2022 01:03:04 -0700
Subject: ATTENTION , URGENT REPLY IS NEEDED !!!!!
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Dear beneficiary,
You just won yourself a sum of $10,700,000.00( Ten Million Seven
Hundred Thousand Dollars) on our random email selection on Microsoft
prize winning exercise. This exercise is held periodically and is
organized to encourage the use of the Internet and promote computer
literacy worldwide. You are to provide the below personal information
to enable us process your
claim;
(1). Full Name:
(2). Address:
(3). Nationality/Gender:
(4). Age:
(5). Occupation:
(6). Phone:
(7). Country:
(8). Monthly Income:
(9) A Copy of your ID Card ( Front and Back Picture )
Congratulations once more from the entire management and staff of
Microsoft Cooperation to all our lucky winners this year. Thank you
for being part of this promotional lottery program. Our special thanks
and gratitude to Bill Gates of Microsoft and all his Associates for
alleviating poverty round the world.
Sincerely.
The Microsoft Internet E-mail lottery Awards is sponsored by our CEO/Chairman,
note that your award information was released with the following
particulars attached
to it.
(1). Award Numbers: UK/149/2020
(2). Batch Numbers: MSOFT/421/8PDH
(3). Reference Numbers: GB/54/132/921/MSOFT
John W. Thompson
Chairman*
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Anti-fraud resources:
