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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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Duff Mathieu <mduff1962@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mathieuduffman@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2022 11:36:27 +0000
Subject: Greetings
I’m Mr. Mathiau a banker working with a commercial bank as a Chief
Financial Officer. I have a business deal for our mutual benefit. One
of our customers died few years ago without any registered next-of-kin
in his bio-data/account file which is peculiar with high profile
investors. I think he was your relative because you both share the
same family's name. Right now my bank wants to sit on this money (US$
13 .5 Million) as unclaimed and abandoned funds which I do not want
because of reasons I will explain to you when I receive your response.
Please get back to me as fast as you can with your mobile telephone
number for more details on how the funds can be turned into yours by
right of inheritance for us to claim and share equally afterwards;
Best Regards, I am urgently expecting your reply.
Yours,
Mr. Mathiau
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Anti-fraud resources:
