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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
- They don't notify winners by email.
- You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
- They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
- They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
- They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
- They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
- They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- jpete7236@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "James Peters" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jpete7236@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2020 21:54:01 +0100
Subject: Your Urgent Attention Needed
FNB- Head Office
DebtClearance: 144 8646.
I hope you are in good condition andalso your health is fine.
Following the UnitedNations and World Bank debt settlement Mandate on foreign payment, our office has finally been granted approval to alert all associated debtors, all the email beneficiaries to Lottery Category as from 2008 to 2020 and contractors with the World Union Countries on the payment approval notice by the World BankAuditors and International Monetary Unit.
Be informed that yourpayment file has been reviewed and processed for settlement by this office and adequate measures have been taken to that effect. However, we have also attached this letter along to the World Bank Auditors for payment Schedule andforeign allocations serial number for onward transfer of the approved sum toyour designated bank account with the payment approval reference number:RE-WDB-US 5678A.
Therefore, we contact you for confirmation before transfers commence to your designated bank account as observed in your payment file, and you are hereby advised to confirm officially to the payment normalization office the below data's of yours for prompt and swift settlement of your outstanding payment without any bank fees.
The followinginformation is needed to the bank:
Your full names:
.
Address:
..
Phone number:
....
Mobile number:
...
Amount expecting:
..
Bank name:
..
Bank address:
..
Bank account:
..
Bank swift code:
......
ABA number:
..
Any form of your identification for example: your International passport or driving license copy.
We sincerely apologize for the delays so far and we thank you for your kind understanding in this matter. Email: jpete7236@gmail.com
Best regards,
James Peters
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Anti-fraud resources: