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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:
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Rey Bernard <abdou-rahmane.berete@uha.fr>
Reply-To: Rey Bernard <rey.bern@outlook.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 19:25:45 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Good Morning
Good Morning, I am Rey Bernard a lawyer here in Spain, I write to contact you about my deceased client bearing the same surname as yours. He died some years ago and left behind $8.2M with no next of kin.
I contacted you so we can work together and secure the funds, because you have the same surname with my deceased client.
If you are interested kindly get back to me with the following information stated below:-
i. RE-CONFIRM YOUR FIRST NAMES:
ii RE-CONFIRM YOUR LAST NAMES :
ii. CONTACT ADDRESS:
Upon hearing from you, I will unfold more details about this transaction. Kindly note this is 100% risk free.
Best regards,
Rey Bernard
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Anti-fraud resources:
