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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:
- "your urgent reply" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "i will advice you " (this email uses bad English)
- "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "FEDERAL RESERVE BANK" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <contact@frbank.cc>
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2022 03:30:16 -0700
Subject: FEDERAL RESERVE BANK
FEDERAL RESERVE BANK
33 LIBERTY STREET
NEW YORK
WELCOME TO FEDERAL RESERVE BANK
Attention ,
This is the foreign remittance department of federal reserve bank.
On behalf of the management and staff members of the federal reserve bank i release this important message to you .
Our bank discovered an existing account that carries your last name and after much research and examination we came to the conclusion that this account belongs to a late family member of yours.
This is a fixed deposit account and it was floated 9th of July 2000 and its maturity date was October 23 2016 and we have waited for someone to claim the fund but to no avail .
I will advice you furnish our office with the below information to proceed with obtaining of the fund.
The information required from you to enable us process your payment are as follow ;
(1) Your full names
(2) Residential address
(3) Phone , fax and cell phone number
(4) Profession , age and marital status
(5) Company/ business name
(6) Your private email address (if any) or same as above .
You are advised to contact us immediately with the above requested information for further details .
We await your prompt compliance shortly , as we are always here to serve you better .
I need your urgent reply and congratulations in advance .
Thanks for your cooperation.
Yours sincerely ,
Mr Chamberlain Martins
International accounts department.
Federal Reserve Bank .
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Anti-fraud resources:
