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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:
- "money laundering" ("anti-terrorist", "anti-money laundering" or "drug-free" certificates are a common way for criminals in fake lottery scams and other Advance Fee scams to get you to send money to them. There are no such certificates in the real banking world. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "UNHCR" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <financialconsultant007@zoho.com>
Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 01:05:48 +0100
Subject: UN/893UU4IN : YOUR INHERITANCE RECOVERY...QQ1
Clearance code IMF: UN/KTT35489/US
Anti Money laundering clearance : KTT/US/748489/UN
You are to restate claims of your recovered excess crude oil contract
payment worth $25m under the UNHCR....I personally
diverted your trunk funds under category B DTT289 which has 18 recovered
unclaimed inheritance....state how much you will compensate me after you
receive your recovered contract funds from me, reconfirm delivery
address, copy of your ID , phone number and copy of your MXTT1107 FIC.
Daniel Harley Jr.
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Anti-fraud resources:
