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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Michael Ponton" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mdmark1960@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:34:56 -0000
Subject: Final Notification
Attention,
This message will be the last notification that I will send to you as
my earlier letters through Post Office was returned undelivered, hence
I decided to reach you via email because this information needs urgent
attention.
I'm contacting you for a personal investigation concerning my deceased
client who bears the same surname with you. The management of my bank
have issued me a notice to provide an extended next of kin of the
deceased or have the account confiscated within the next 21 banking
days.
I am the Telex Department manager of my bank and also the personal
account officer to the deceased, but I'm not contacting you officially
from my bank hence I'm constrained to give detailed information at
this point for security reasons.
I am making this effort because I will be disappointed to see the
labour of my deceased client been confiscated. So kindly get back to
me with your full name and address for appraisal.
Best regards,
Michael Ponton
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Anti-fraud resources:
