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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.
- 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.
- 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.
- zenithbankplbenin@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala" <ervaba@alice.it>
Reply-To: zenithbankplbenin@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2015 15:23:04 -0700
Subject: NOTIFICATION ABOUT YOUR $8.8 MILLION
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I'm Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala finance Minster I have received an
instructional letter today from the office of the presidency under the
instruction of the IMF Authorities ask me to deposit your Inheritance
Lottery fund sum of usd$8.8M belong to you without any delay.
Your Fund has been deposited under Zenith Bank Plc custody, so I advice
to contact them with Full name,Home address,Phone numbers,Occupation and
Bank Information:
Kindly Contact ZENITH BANK LTD
Managing Director:Mr. George Meze
Telephone: +228 6899-3758
Email:(zenithbankplbenin@gmail.com)
(Ref::RBOCIGMKL/00Y/2015)
Yours in service
Dr.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
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This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.
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Anti-fraud resources:
