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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: "Jane Cunningham" <jefferson@primus.ca>
Reply-To: "Jane Cunningham" <jane@allansharmanagency.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:31:55 -0800
Subject: #10237 Payment Due
Dear Customer,
I wrote to you several times to remind you of the pending amount of £424.32 for invoice #10237. As another reminder, payment was due two weeks ago.
If you have any queries regarding this payment, please let me know. I’ve also attached a copy of the invoice to this email, in case the original was lost or deleted.
Could you reply to this message and let me know you’ve received it? Thank you.
Kind regards,
Jane Williams
Finance Manager
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Anti-fraud resources:
