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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:
- "utmost confidentiality" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr Mohd Abdulla" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <msureshabdullah@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2016 04:57:46 -0800
Subject: Call me as soon as possible
Hi ,
My name is Mr. Mohd Suhail Amar Suresh Abdullah. I am the Group Chief Technology Officer of MayBank in Malaysia and a trained auditor working for the bank as a larger entity that covers the entire region.
I have taking pains to find out your contact, using the deceased last name.I am contacting you for a safe and profitable proposal that will benefit both of us if you are interested and trustworthy, please reply back and let’s work towards taking advantage of this profitable situation.
We will leave out the further details of this transaction till we receive an affirmation of your desire to participate. You can be rest assured that we are on top of this situation all the time and there will be no risk whatsoever if you elect to come on board. Needless to say, utmost confidentiality is of vital importance if we are to successfully reap the immense benefits of this transaction.
Regards,
Mr. Mohd Abdullah
Fax No: +60 321 784 859
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Anti-fraud resources:
