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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.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
Fraud email example:
From: "International Monetary Fund" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <infomail.imf@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 13:47:11 -0400
Subject: Urgent Attention!!
Attn Beneficiary,
Have you received your funds with the officials that you trusted and dealing with for years? If Yes, please ignore this message, and if you have not receive your funds you can call me immediately with my direct number +234-8130211125 and Email me with your information so that I will tell you what you need to do and receive your fund within 1hours. The International Monetary Fund is determine to release all outstanding funds in this second quarter of 2012 without any further delay.
Best Regards.
Mr. Ken Walker.
I.M.F.Director.
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Anti-fraud resources:
