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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:
- "(ecowas)" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Ms Olivia Barbara Tettey <longhivanessa@alice.it>
Reply-To: olivia.btettey@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2017 14:31:32 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Atm Card Award Team.
Attn:Beneficiary,
A cash grant award of an Atm card containing the sum of (US$4.5Million) The
present Award Promo has been awarded to you The fund lottery being discussed is
yours sequel to latest instruction from Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) to pay those who have been pursuing the payment or the other
but has not been paid for long.
The fund will be paid through the ATM payment center here in Cotonou , Republic
of Benin . The ECOWAS in collaboration and support of the World Bank came up
with this program and beneficiaries were chosen through a random sampling
method facilitated by Microsoft for a few citizens around the world as could be
accommodated within the limited budgeted funds. Contact us with your details:
Name:Address:Sex:Age:Occupation: Phone number: Country: Nationality:
Congratulations!,
Kind regards,
Ms Olivia Barbara Tettey
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Anti-fraud resources:
