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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:
- "million 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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- 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: "LotteryUSA" <tuananh@aov.vn>
Reply-To: winner@nclottery.win
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2022 08:49:12 -0700
Subject: North Carolina(Mega Millions)
Congratulations!! Congratulations!!
Private consultation from North Carolina Education Lottery. You have
been drawn as one of the winner of our North Carolina Educational
international Lottery winner through your Linkedin profile. Free
ticket Number: B556075456152 with reference number USJA2CP5 and Serial
number SA5365/20, Batch Number: XA87-2PY Drew the lucky numbers:
3-7-11-13-38-MB(1)
This subsequently won you the lottery in the 1st category i.e. matches
5 lucky numbers and a Power Ball number Mega Million. You are therefore allocated
to claim a total sum of US$445,000,000.00 (Four Hundred and Fouthy
Five Million United States Dollars) in cash payment credited to file
USPC/9080144308/05.
contact us for more information about the Notification and how to
claim the fund.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Janice Ramirez
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Anti-fraud resources:
