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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Usman Hassan" <rjadams9056@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dr.usman_hassan@outlook.com
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2015 08:32:38 -0700
Subject: RE: VERY URGENT
Good day,
I contact you to seek your assistance. I am a banker, There is one of
our deceased customer from your country (Mr. Anthony) He died in an
auto- accident and left behind the sum of US$15.5Million USD. I have
been searching for any of his relative to come forward to claim the
funds but all my effort proved abortive and if no one comes forward
for this claim after a certain period the bank will take over the
fund, hence, I seek your partnership in receiving this fund for our
mutual benefit.
I will direct on what to do to get the fund transfer to you. If
interested, reply immediately for more detail.
Best Regards
Dr. Usman Hassan
Payment Verification Panel
ICB Bank Ghana
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Anti-fraud resources:
