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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:
- "inheritance funds" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "vitalalert@vivaldi.net" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: "BankOfAmerica" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <vitalalert@vivaldi.net>
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2019 22:04:16 +0530
Subject: Re: URGENT Ref#: $10.5M/ FBI
Attention please!!!
We are authorized by the federal bureau of investigation (FBI) and the Governing Board of World Bank to investigate the unnecessary delay of your payment,to also recommend and approve your claims for payment if the report of the unclaimed contract/inheritance funds is genuine. However, we discovered that your funds has been unnecessarily delayed by corrupt officials of some banks.
We have agreed with the authority that we will handle this payment ourselves to avoid the hopeless situation created by those officials. Currently your Inheritance/Contract fund of $10.5M has been credited in Cashier Check.
Contact Mr. Michael D White (Bank Of America Bank director) with your details for immediate delivery.
Email:(vitalalert@vivaldi.net),office line:+1 800-876-9549
Signed By
Management Of Bank Of America.
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Anti-fraud resources: