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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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Federal Reserve Bank" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <federalreserveboardsystem@superposta.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 01:58:56 +0100
Subject: CONGRATULATION ON YOUR CONTRACT FUND.
FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD NEW YORK
33 LIBERTY STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10038.
ATTENTION BENEFICIARY:
CONTRACT FUNDS - CREDITED FROM THE BANK FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD
We received an instructional letter to credit $10.5million to your account.
Your response is required to enable us credit your account without any further delay and you are also required to get back to us with the confirmation of your banking particulars and your direct telephone number to avoid crediting your fund to wrong account.
CONGRATULATION ON YOUR CONTRACT FUND.
Please be fast on this matter. Thanks and God bless you.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Ben S. Bernanke
Director Federal Reserve Bank New York.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/
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Anti-fraud resources:
