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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "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. )
- "million dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "economic and financial crimes commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "(efcc)" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "MR Felix Adu" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <felixadu.dr@dr.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2017 10:22:39 -0700
Subject: YOUR URGENT RESPONSE NEEDED
Dear Sir/Madam
I am contacting you in my capacity as the audit chairman of this body-
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria. All the African Crime fighter
leaders have come together to stop scam/internet fraud in Nigeria and all around Africa.
Our duty is to make sure we stop Internet scam and money laundering. As for today we have
put a lot of fraudsters in jail. We go all over Africa to pick these thieves/Internet
scammers. We have over 4200 of them in our jails round Africa and we are still looking
for more. We are aware that a lot of foreigners out there have been deceived and lost
their hard earned money to these fraudsters after promising them percentages in their
letters/e-mails for their impending help to move funds out of Africa including fake
lottery winning notification and at the end of the day, they will collect thousands of
dollars from you without a successful end.
We have recovered over US$5.3 Billion Dollars from the people we have behind bars.
Please, watch the video links below as some of these fraud-stars were arrested here in
Nigeria:http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=ISMgGdaGOJM
It was agreed that to launder the good image of Nigeria and the rest of African
countries, all the victims who lost their hard earned monies to these faceless thieves
will be compensated with just US$5M (Five Million Dollars Only). This we assume will help
emulurate the surfferings of those who were effected.
Kindly contact us on the receipt of the above message to enable us commence ways of
having you compensated
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
MR Felix Adu
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