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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:
- "western union" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "money gram" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. JOHN LUCAS" <uurrrshafqrwvw@gmail.com>
Reply-To: "Mr. JOHN LUCAS" <western_union@mail2mba.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 08:52:36 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Dear Customer
Dear Customer
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is compensating some scam victims and
your email address was found in the scam victims list. This WESTERN UNION®office
has been mandated by the IMF to transfer your compensation to you via Money Gram®Money Transfer.
However, we have concluded to affect your own payment through WESTERN UNION®Money
Transfer, 5000.00 pay day until the total sum of $2.5 Million United States is
completely transferred to you the receiver. We cannot be able to send the
payment with your email address alone, we are hereby needed your information to
where we will be sending the funds.
(Receivers name)............
(Country)..................... ..
(Address)..................... ...........
(Phone Number).....................
(Your Age).......................... ........
(ID copy)............. ..................
(Your Email Address)...................
NOTE: That your payment files will be returned to the IMF within 24hours if we
did not hear from you because this was the instruction given to us by the IMF
office here in USA. We will start the transfer as soon as we received
your information. You are hereby warned not to communicate or duplicate this
message for any reason what so ever because the US FBI is already on trace
Sincerely,
Mr. JOHN LUCAS
Manager Director for WESTERN UNION
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Anti-fraud resources:
