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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:
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Randy Lee Ferdinand" <teditrans@neostrada.pl>
Reply-To: bnkmanager@gncn.net
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:22:03 +0800
Subject: Personal accountant to an expatriate engineer
I am Mr. Randy Lee Ferdinand Personal accountant to an expatriate engineer. I am contacting you in respect to an inheritance fund valued at ($19.5M) belonging to my late client who died as the result of a heart-related condition on 12th of March 2005. Our newly appointed director of the Bank has ordered that we should compile the list of dormant account. As a christian, I have decided that instead of loosing the whole money to the Bank, I will rather donate the money to any charitable organization in your country. If you are willing to assit me for these project, you should contact for more details.
Email: bnkmanager@gncn.net
Name: Mr. Randy Lee Ferdinand.
Telephone: +60163544376
Mr. Randy Lee Ferdinand
Branch Manager
Atlantic City Bank.
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Anti-fraud resources:
