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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:
- "huge deposit" (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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "james williams" <mrjameswilliams6ig@att.net>
Reply-To: <mrjameswilliams1@sify.com>
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 03:52:26 +0200
Subject: classified information
Hello Dear,
Please kindly permit me to introduce myself and this business deal opportunity which I want to do with you. My name is Mr james williams, a bank manager. I wish to know if we can work together. I want you to stand as the foreigner who made a huge deposits in my bank.
The transfer would be made via swift and it will be a Bank-to-Bank wired transfer. All I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor of this funds. I will compute your particulars as the person who made the deposit in my branch, so that my head office will immediately order the transfer to your designated bank Account.
Please indicate If you are interested or not so that I can give you details on what we are to do, I urgently hope to hear from you as soonest.
Best regards,
Mr james williams
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Anti-fraud resources:
