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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:
- "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.
Fraud email example:
From: "COMPENSATION HOUSE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <markbill12791@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2016 15:08:07 +0200
Subject: UPDATE ABOUT YOUR PENDING FUNDS
How are you doing today? Am Mark Bill from the United state of America, Am new in office so i decided to go through some files to know what have been done by the past director of the office and what he still got to do before is death.
I got to a particular file, where i found your name and email on a document of $2.5 millions that is suppose to have been delivered to you in your home address or send to your account in respective of how you wanted it but is yet to be done, please am contacting you to know if you are still want yours funds and i will instruct you on how you will receive your funds, get back to me as soon as you get this email
yours faithfully
Mark Bill
Director
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Anti-fraud resources:
