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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: "Mr. Porras" <noreply@wanadoo.fr>
Reply-To: "Mr. Porras" <abramporras@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2019 13:45:24 -0700
Subject: Re: Await your Acceptance.
I am Mr. Porras a finance officer in a reputable financial institution. I wish to notify you that I am willing to list your name as a beneficiary to an estate in the codicil and last testament of a deceased customer in our financial institution.
I am contacting you to partner with me and therefore I can present you as the beneficiary to the inheritance. I therefore reckoned that you can receive these funds as you are qualified to stand as the only beneficiary. All the legal papers that will be used to process the payment will be handled by me, in your acceptance to co-operate with me on this deal.
Kindly forward to me your letter of acceptance to enable me commence with the procurement of all the legal documents for the release of this sum of money to you.
Yours faithfully,
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Anti-fraud resources:
