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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 next of kin scam.
- 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.
- kennith.otiz@hotmail.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Kennith Otiz" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <kennith.otiz@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:08:47 -0500
Subject: Re: Good day
Good Day,
I am Kennith Otiz, Principal Attorney to a deceased client, who died in a car crash in London with his immediate family members (wife and only daughter) on November 5th 2007. He left behind a total bank deposit of 9.8million GBP.
Your consent is hereby needed by me to present you as the next of kin since he shared the same last name with you. I have documents that will confer on you the legal rights for the claim. Could you please send me your phone number so we can discuss further.
Regards,
Kennith Otiz
Email: kennith.otiz@hotmail.co.uk
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Anti-fraud resources:
