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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.
- 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.
- 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.
- fedminfinance007@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Armstrong Okongwu" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <fmf.intnlremit@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 13:09:05 -0500
Subject: GLAD TO LET YOU KNOW THIS
Dearest,
I would like to contact you in regards to a matter of confidential importance. My name is Dr Armstrong Okongwu an executive director in my country's Ministry of Finance. Please note that I will not contact you if I do not have the confidence that you will treat this letter with the absolute secrecy it deserves.
Holding you in absolute confidence therefore I wish to reveal to you a file of approved payment on my table. The payment is approved as foreign payment with the payment code that matches your name and email address so that it is very easy for our bankers to channel the fund as next of kin payment to you. You will only require a very minimal adjustment to officially send this fund to you by our bankers who are already aware of the approval and are only waiting for a receiving account to put the money.
The payment is fully and completely approved as Contract/Inheritance payment and all the official cover paper to make it pass the international payment requirements are prepared and approved ready. Once the fund is sent to you it can never be looked for or traced to any illegal transaction because it is originally prepared as a full legitimate international payment. I am therefore as a matter of absolute importance advising that you contact me upon your perusal so that I can initiate the payment to you.
Please write me back by this email: fedminfinance007@yahoo.com or call me at +234 8133192689.
Thanking for kindest cooperation in advance.
Yours faithfully,
Armstrong Okongwu
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