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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.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447024080645 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "PROJECT" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <adesolabola60@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2014 13:38:27 -0500
Subject: RE: URGENT
Hello
My name is Adesola Bola
and am a financial consultant with the World Bank and the IMF on debt recovery.I was going
through some payment files and i discovered your name and email address as one of the beneficiary"s that is owed
and has not been paid for one reason or the other.I believe that you must have some past dealings regarding a
delayed payment.Please confirm this and let me know the reason why you were not paid.I can make arrangement through the debt recovery department for you to receive your delayed payment within three working days.
I will wait to get a prompt response from you and i assure you that you will not regret this.
Regards.
Ade Sola
Consultant,World Bank and IMF.
+44-7024080645
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Anti-fraud resources:
