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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:
- "your urgent reply" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "economic and financial crime commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "(efcc)" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Richard Montage" <richmontage@gmail.com>
Reply-To: richmontage@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 02:48:58 +0300
Subject: investment proposal
Att:Sir/Madam,
My name is Mr.Richard montage a special adviser to the Governor in one of
the big Oil producing State herein Nigeria. I don't want to disclose the
State here in the Internet for Security reasons. My master mandated me to
contact who ever is capable to handle this project, he really wants to
invest outside Nigeria for security reason and for the future of his
family. He is facing a big problem here in Nigeria with Economic and
Financial Crime Commission(EFCC),they are only waiting for him to step
down so that they can probe him. If he can be able to invest outside the
country as soon as possible, this will give chances of winning case with
Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC). We need urgent attention
if you are interested to do this business with us. And i really want to
know where we can meet any Country of your choice for us to have a
concrete agreement of this Investment.
I await your urgent reply.
Mr. Richard montage
Special Adviser to the Governor
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Anti-fraud resources:
