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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:
- "inheritance funds" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Spunky Yellow <spunkyyellow@gmail.com>
Reply-To: whitespunky@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2023 13:14:35 -0700
Subject: hello
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i am miss Annabel blessing from Amazon delivery agent i am hereby to
lets you know about your winning inheritance funds from our company
and it worth asum $30 million USD cash in a suitcase so get back to me
with your full delivery information like your:home address and
your:phone number and the copy of your ID CARD and i really need to
get this funds delivered to you this weekend because i have been here
at your city airport over 5 days now waiting to hear back from you ok
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Anti-fraud resources:
