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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: "JOEL YOUNG [esq]" <atmawardclaim@gmail.com>
Reply-To: oficeresultfile@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2019 06:41:48 +0100
Subject: RE
Sir/Ma,
Be reminded of your inheritance fund awaiting claim with the bank here in
the USA after the death of your relative. Respond with you FULL NAME,
ADDRESS and MOBILE PHONE NUMBER to enable us proceed with the claim in your
favour as the next of kin beneficiary.I will provide you with further
information as soon as I hear from you.
You can call or text me on my Mobile :1-301-636-5817 (Calls & Text
messages) for details.
I awaits your urgent response.
Sincerely,
Joel Young.
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Anti-fraud resources:
