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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:
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs.Elaine Patrick" <ela.pat01@gmail.com>
Reply-To: truelyworthy0@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2021 13:22:44 +0100
Subject: Mrs. Elaine Patrick.
Seasonal greetings.
I am Mrs. Elaine Patrick,, Regional Bank manager of one local bank
here ABIDJAN-Cote D'Ivoire. I discovered excess profits amount of
money which was kept in a suspense account without any beneficiary
coming for claims. That is why am contacting you for us to work
together to get the said fund transfer to your bank account and the
percentage ratio is forty percent for you and sixty percent for me.
All i need from you is to stand as the depositor next of kin, so that
our bank head office will order the transfer to your designated bank
account.
If you accept this offer to work with me, kindly reply for full details.
Best Regards,
Mrs. Elaine Patrick.
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Anti-fraud resources:
