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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.
- 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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "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.
- brawillson94@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "WLS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <brawillson94@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2023 16:05:19 +0100
Subject: URGENT ASSISTANT PLEASE.
Dear Friend.
I am Mr. Willson Brand, a financial consultant, bringing to your notice a business proposal.
A well known minister in one of the African countries who is undergoing financial queries by
the Authority over alleged mismanaged of contract funds worth over five billion dollars has contacted me to help him move a transit funds amounting to US$ 76 Million dollars.
He has advised that the funds be moved from its present position to a reliable hand and be used for any lucrative investment abroad . I am contacting you based on the information I already given to him that I have a reliable hand to handle the investment funds, but the person I had in mind unknown to me passed away due to Covid-19 complication as I was reliably informed.
Therefore I am contacting you to know if you are able to handle this matter by receiving and investing the funds under a 60/40 sharing ratio of the capital and the investment annual returns.
If you are interested to handle the transaction, kindly contact me through this email address (brawillson94@gmail.com) for more detail
Regards
Mr. Willson Brand
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Anti-fraud resources:
