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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "huge deposit" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "million dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- 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.
- drewgins17@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Andrew Higgins" (may be fake)
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2022 06:17:33 -0700
Subject: Re: Open Request
Hi,
Greetings to you, prior to this mail I did send you a mail with notice of an existing Bonded Account in my Bank (GARANT FINANS) with the same surname as yours, with no response from you yet. I was wondering if you did receive the mail. And so I had to send you this again.
The said BONDED ACCOUNT in the Bank here where I work has a huge deposit in excess of $8 MILLION DOLLARS in it. I would like to discuss this in detail with you when you revert back to me based on the initial mail or this one, because I can assure you 100% that this should be of immense benefit to you.
So it's imperative you revert back to me with regards to my last mail because both mails contain the same information. Please send your reply to this my private mail account drewgins17@gmail.com
Yours Sincerely,
Andrew Higgins
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Anti-fraud resources:
