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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.  
 -  This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams. 
 
Fraud email example:
From: Kristalina geogieva <abdullahiferanmi20@gmail.com> 
Reply-To: kristalinageogieva08@gmail.com 
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2023 07:15:29 -0800 
Subject: ATTENTION!!! 
 
Please your urgent attention and response is needed now !!! 
 
I was in my office filing some paperwork when Mr Donald Floyd came 
into the office with a sad news that you was involved in an automobile 
accident 
 
He also came up with a news that you was taken to a nearby hospital 
and you authorised him to come to this office and inherit your funds 
from us because you was weak and unable to pick your funds or wait at 
home for it to be delivered to you 
So he decided to come to our office to carry out your order 
 
We decided to contact you to find out the truth 
 
We cant say that youâre the one who ordered him to come and pick your 
funds but it depends on how you acts towards this matter 
 
Because if youâre silent then that could prove to us that youâve 
authorised him to pick up the funds from my office .... 
 
 
This is the reason why we need your urgent response 
But if you donât respond till next 5 hours 
We will go ahead and hand over the funds to Mr Donald Floyd and take 
what he says as the truth 
 
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Anti-fraud resources: