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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)
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr John Owonla." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jamesmalco0@mail.com.tr>
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2016 15:15:47 +0200
Subject: BENEFICIARY OF FUNDS
Dear Sir/Madam,Re
I am pleased to contact you for a financial transaction.My name is Dr John Owonla member Contract Award Reconciliation and Procurement committe Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) am contacting you based on the mandate given to me by the enitre member of the committe to solicit for an urgent assistant of a reputable person for a partnership in this venture.
We have in our procession valid approved executed contract payment documenst valued at $25M(Tewnty-Five Million United States Dollar only) for claim.The payment was discovered and dectected to be overinvoiced contract payment during reconciliation of all outstanding contract payment files, and we want to use this opportunity to have it released in your favor.We can use our name to put in claim application of the release therefore requesting your partnership to make it work.
However,we have decieded after a close meeting that you will be compensated with 25% and we will have 75% as we are five in number.This transaction is 100% risk free as we have taken care of modalities.I pray that this proposal will bring us together for more ventures in future based on the outcome of this first transaction.You will be made to know the complete origin information of the contract payment then after,you will be informed with the information needed
from you and your assistant to enable us forge ahead.
I am thanking you in advance for your understanding and corporation in this venture and hpoing to hear from you as soon as possible.
Best Regard
Dr John Owonla.
email: jamesmalco0@mail.com.tr
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Anti-fraud resources:
