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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:
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "OKEY Nwuke" <okey.nwuke@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: okey_nwuke@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2013 07:06:19 +0800
Subject: URGENT REPLY
Good Day to you,
My name is Mr.Okey Nwuke,the Director in charge of Auditing section of ACCESS
BANK, I discovered existing dormant account.
I seek your consent to present yourself as the next of kin to the deceased. As
an auditor in the bank I will use my position in the bank to help you stand as
the next of kin to the deceased, so that the proceeds of this account valued
at (10.5 Million Euros) can be transferred to your account,
I will send you full details on how the business will be exec
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Anti-fraud resources:
