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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "the bmw automobile company" (no such lottery exists)
- 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.
- leonardphilip370@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: MR LEONARD PHILIP <johnbenson3204@gmail.com>
Reply-To: leonardphilip370@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2023 06:58:58 -0700
Subject: ATTENTION DEAR BENEFICIARY
--
BMW GROUP
CONGRATULATION ON YOUR BMW CAR WINING
Unit E & F London Stone Business Estate Broughton Street,
Battersea London SW8 3QR
Dear Lucky Winner,
The BMW Automobile Company, wishes to congratulate you on
the success of your email address and your phone number as one LUCKY
Star Prize Winner in this year’s
International Awareness Promotion (IAP) held on 18 2023 IN London.
This makes you the proud owner of a brand new BMW 5
Series car and CASH prize of £50,000.00 GBP.
Serial
No: BMWP/556543450906 and Ref No: BMW: 2551256003/23.
provide
listed information’s for documentation and processing of your prize and quote
your identification numbers
Names:
Address:.
Occupation:
Age:
Sex:
Mobile Number:
State:
Nationality:
Passport Size Photograph:
E-mail id
processing of your prize contact: BMW COMPANY [leonardphilip370@gmail.com]
SEND YOUR DETAILS
including SERIAL NUMBER & REF NUMBERS TO BMW COMPANY’S EMAIL ID
[leonardphilip370@gmail.com]
Yours
Faithfully
BMW Promotion Director
Mr leonard philip
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Anti-fraud resources:
