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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:
- "transfer into your account" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Michele Zaccheo" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.michele_zaccheo@yahoo.pt>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 22:31:19 +0400
Subject: New Year Information
Attn:
This is to notify you that your funds has been programmed for immediate release into your bank account,
but we cannot transfer this funds direct to your account because we are having problem with the
International Monetary Fund/financial economic meltdown that hit our bank
For this reason Central bank has appointed our apex bank in Asia to complete the swift transfer into your
account, kindly provide us with your current full information to enable us program and move your file to our
apex bank of Asia for urgent communicate and transfer procedure.
I know you will be very much interested, kindly provide me with the details below.
First Name.............
Surname................
Address...............
City........................
State/Province.......
Country..................
Mobile Phone........
Occupation………………
Further details to proceed will be providing once I hear from you.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Michele Zaccheo
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Anti-fraud resources:
