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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- 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: "MR BAN KI-MOON" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <moonbanki187@ yahoo.de>
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2016 05:51:41 -0500
Subject: UNITED NATIONS
Dear Sir/Madam,
This is to congratulate you for scaling through the hurdles of screening by the Board of Directors of U N / I M F Compensation p a y m e n t task force for this last quarter of the fiscal year 2016.It may interest you to know that Your p a y m e n t file was approved and immediate instruction given by the United Nation in conjunction with IMF to release your over due contract/inheritance F u n d s valued US$5.5M only after several months of deliberations on the issue. Kindly Respond Now for More Details. on how to receive your F u n d.
Kindly contact the Governor Central B a n k Of Nigeria on this Email info.cbnbank34 @ yahoo.com and call him on this Telephone Number +234-8189211072 while you forward him your FULL NAMES,TELEPHONE NUMBER,AGE/OCCUPATION,HOME ADDRESS so as to pay the F u n ds to you as United Nation F u n ds compensation in that respect.
Best regards.
MR BAN KI-MOON.
SEC TO UNITED NATIONS.
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Anti-fraud resources:
