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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: "Mr. Ryan day" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnmomoh770@yahoo.co.nz>
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 13:23:38 +0200
Subject: RE: PLEASE CLARIFY
This is to officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly investigated by the help of our intelligence monitoring network system that you are having an illegal transaction with imposters claiming bank officials. Be informed that the federal bureau of investigation is aware of your predicament. During our i
nvestigation, it came to our notice that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled your financial obligation giving to you in respect of your contract/inheritance payment. PLEASE VIEW ATTACHMENT FOR DETAILS
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Anti-fraud resources:
