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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:
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "officeofderekirwi2@qq.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- 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 Derek Irwin <ao94p@uwdiwq.net>
Reply-To: <officeofderekirwi2@qq.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2016 11:48:13 +0100
Subject: Please feel free to contact me for futher discussion
My name is Mr Derek Irwin director in charge of compensation board by the IMF here in Benin, i recently came down here in Cotonou for the completion of payment to the remaining beneficiary and i found out that you have not yet received your fund i asked the present director and he told me that you stop responding due to some issue you were having on trust
i am contacting you this morning because the IMF compensation board instruct that all fund that are not paid should be return back to the Government Treasury.
i have advice them to hold on so i can personally contact you and know the reason why you reject such an amount of money which can change your life for the better
i want your urgent response as soon as you get this email and Explain to me the full reason in details why you have decided to abandoned your fund, to remind you again the fund amount is 4.8M USD and you can either receive the fund through a wire bank transfer or Diplomat delivery your choice
write me back soon or better still give me a call direct
Regards
Derek Irwin
Cell# +234-81-87223737
E-mai: officeofderekirwi2@qq.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
