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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Godwin Wallace." <yuttteya@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mr.godwinwallace@aol.com
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2018 23:13:58 +0200
Subject: HI....
Good day,
My name is Godwin Wallace. I am so sorry for sending you this unsolicited
and unexpected mail.
I work with a legal firm as an advisory board member under inheritance
department (I am withholding the name of the firm for security reason).
In brief, my job is to see that any unclaimed account resulting from demise
of account holder is certified and confirmed (UNCLAIMED) before final
liquidation instruction is passed on such account file. All I require is
your honest co-operation, upon your response, I will write you full
detailed email message. I guarantee that this will be executed under a
legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the Law.
I expect to hear from.
Godwin Wallace.
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Anti-fraud resources:
