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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: "INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <clarkdavis880@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 14 May 2013 10:37:52 -0700
Subject: DID YOU CHANGE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT?
We are to inform you that every dime will be refunded to you today.Now we have consulted your remitting bank and nominated bank that the transfer will finally take place within 24 hours.
You are not expected to pay anymore money or pay for any document as everything has been provided.All you are expected to do now is to download the invoice attached and then fill in your full information to confirm you are the right person.Also when you open the attached file it might come up another page then you are advised to login again and then you will see the form to fill.
Do proceed now and open the attached invoice
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Anti-fraud resources:
