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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:
- "is highly confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Peter Owen(Mr.)" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <oxfordxx101@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2018 21:51:24 +0100
Subject: <<<Message from Mr Peter Owen>>>
Greetings!!
Apologies should my message be a disturbance to you.My Name is Peter Owen a fund/Investment Manager with a high profile investment company.A huge Sum of funds has been diverted, representing 1.2% of Excess Magellan Capital Funds from the Investor Capital Project Funds.
I am contacting you strictly for us to work this deal out so that we can claim the funds as mentioned above.
Be assured that this is highly confidential and your integrity will be protected. You must consider this a professionally arranged business deal and should respond ONLY if you can
exhibit 100% commitment.
Sincerely,
Peter Owen
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Anti-fraud resources:
