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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr. X <xx@yy>
Reply-To: teambobjohnson@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 15 May 2018 13:43:04 +0100
Subject: Re:Pending Payment
Attention
This is to inform you that your pending payment facsimile will be release =
through crypto payment bitcoin .
After a brief meeting with president of United States of America Donald Tr=
ump on the Pending payment of honorable contractors,Inheritance and online=
lottery payment the board set up for this payment have decided to release =
your fund with compensation of $500,000 you are therefore advice to furnish=
your details =
Full name
Contact address
Phone and fax number =
Date of birth =
Copy of passport or driver license =
Company name
Pending payment amount and file ref
We shall wait to receive your details and cross check from our data base =
Congratulations
Bob Johnson
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Anti-fraud resources: