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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:
- "courier company" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr.John C. Williamstm" <nevaude2@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ofile6841@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2023 01:01:22 -0700
Subject:
--
i am here to update you with the new development concerning your ATM
CARD delivery to you because i received call from Federal Ministry Of
Finance just now and they want to know if you have received your ATM
CARD or not that they are calling to recall the ATM CARD back to there
office and i told them that your ATM CARD is out of the Country to
your home address and i said so to them just to protect your ATM CARD
for you .
And i called the TNT COURIER COMPANY that i used before to know if
they can do C.O.D and they said yes but it will be stamp before they
can carry it out and they said that to stamp it will cost you only
$50, so are you ready because i will give you the tracking number once
you send the$ 50 that they need and i don't want your ATM CARD to stay
long here with me as you know that the Federal Ministry Of Finance
will be investigating to know if you have received it or not like as i
told them that you have received your ATM CARD to avoid them to recall
it back
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Anti-fraud resources:
