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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:
- "united state of america" (this email uses bad English)
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "IMF OFFICE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <transfermonitoringdept.msmiths@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2017 16:55:36 -0400
Subject: .........YOU CAN NOW OPEN THE ATTACHED SLIP WITHOUT ANY DIFFICULTY.
Dear Beneficiary,
Your long awaited payment of $800,000 have been wired into your bank account today without any fee required from you.
Kindly download and check the attached scanned copies of the transfer slip for confirmation if the Transfer was made into the right bank account and get back to us urgently.
Please confirm receipt
Regards,
Sander Rivers
Tel: 509 836 4239
United State Of America.
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Anti-fraud resources:
