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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "western union" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "money gram" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "transfer of your funds" (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)
- "united state of america" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- bernanke1222@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr.Ben Bernanke" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bernanke1222@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2015 03:53:36 -0400
Subject: Hello My Dear Citizens Of America
40 Capitol Square,
SW, Atlanta, GA 30334-1300
(404)-342-3136
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE BARACK OBAMA SCAM VICTIM COMPENSATION SCHEME
Its no longer a news that millions of American citizens and the rest of the world have been victims of Internet fraud in one way or the other.
THE BARACK OBAMA SCAM VICTIM COMPENSATION SCHEME is designed to assist and compensate the individuals that has been swindled and ripped off by this unscrupulous internet smart scammers. We were able to recovers some names of the scammed victims through Western Union and Money Gram, because its seems that’s the easy means by which the scammers obtains money from their prey.Your details was found among the list of names that have made payment via Western Union or Money Gram.
The total sum of $350,000USD will be deposited into your account as soon as we confirm your details as been a victim of scam. This is to also add value and credit to the Barack Obama’s government.
Please if you have ever made payment via western union or money gram, reply to this email with your: bernanke1222@gmail.com Note: Ignore all emails asking you to pay certain amount of money to get your compensation for all the money required for the documentation of your funds will be sorted out by the Government out of the Money your been compensated with. We need the information below to confirm that your the rightful owner of the funds and not someone else
FULL NAME: ADDRESS:
SCANNED COPY OF A VALID IDENTITY CARD:
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
LIST OF COUNTRIES YOU SENT MONEY TO:
AMOUNT OF MONEY LOST IN THIS PROCESS:
More also after the provision of the above information your details will be forwarded to our head office in other to commence with the transfer of your funds into your Bank Account.
For your interest we will need you to open a new bank account in which we could make transfers of your funds because we got complains of people been scared to drop their personal bank account information that's why we came up with this scheme and for each state and city in the United State of America we have Banks and Credit Union we work with so we going to let you know the Bank to open or the Credit Union If you have any doubts we can give you phone numbers to call of people who got compensated.
For more information you can call us on (404)-342-3136 of better or email us at bernanke1222@gmail.com
Thank you
Yours Sincerely
Ben Bernanke
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