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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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "owen Beckley" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <beckowen62@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2018 12:54:33 +0100
Subject: YOUR REPLY
Dear Sir/Madam,
This is to bring to your notice with the recent meeting and 8th National Assembly meeting that held today with Committees on Debt Reconciliation and scam victims compensation office.
We have credited your total sum of $2.5M compensation funds into an ATM MASTER CARD I want to inform you that you have 14 days left to pick up your card before it will expire and return back into Federal Government treasury account as abandoned funds .forward your full information for claim,Name,Address,Phone,Countr to enable us process yur fund without any delays.
Best regards
OWEN BECKLEY
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Anti-fraud resources:
