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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- unitedbank103@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Abubakar Malami" <erei26454@gmail.com>
Reply-To: unitedbank103@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2021 14:18:46 -0700
Subject: Dear Beneficiary,
--
Our government and the United Nation launched an effort to compensate
all the victims of fraud And your email address was found in the list of
fraud victims.
The programs are as follows:
(1) Eradication of scamming strategies by advanced technology input.
(2) Compensation of scam victims.
(3) Instantiates funds in any kinds
(4) next of kin
(5) Bitcoins investors
Your email address was found and you are one of those to be
compensated.Your total compensation fund is $800 000 00 (Eight hundred
thousand, United State Dollars) This money is presently banked with the
remittance department of the organization. All you have to do is to
contact the head office of the remittance department with the following
details to enable your fund to be processed and released to you within
the stipulated time frame. contact email (unitedbank103@gmail.com)
YOUR URGENT ATTENTION IS NEEDED
Signed by,
Abubakar Malami
Attorney General of Nigeria.
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Anti-fraud resources:
