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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: "Ambassador.mary beth leonard" <okepesu@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ambassadormaryleonard1@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2023 07:30:26 -0600
Subject: YOUR FAST RESPOND IS NEEDED IMMEDIATELY..
Hello,
How are you doing today? I hope you are good, please i am ambassador
Mary Beth Leonard the u.s. Ambassador. I want to let you know that the
paying bank has processed your compensation funded card and i have
collected it from them this morning on your behalf due to the
situation i saw you name in the list of those who have been trying to
get them funds release since many years and have spend a lot of money
to get this done but you have not received your fund yet.
I want to let you know that i will be coming to your country for an
official meeting on Thursday and if you will like i will be bringing
your funded card credited $6million along with me but this time i will
not go through customs because as an ambassador to Nigeria, I am a us
government agent and i have the veto power to go through customs as
soon as I am through with the meeting i shall then proceed to your
address.
Or can you come down and collect your card in my office and start
making use of it or should I send it to you by courier if you are
ready to pay for the courier companies fee? meanwhile, the bank told
me that they will send you the pin number directly for security
reasons and they also told me that you can only withdraw $5,000.00
daily and you can also make transfers with this card for years because
they credited $6million inside this card before it will expire.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
ambassador. Mary Beth Leonard
United states ambassador
Direct cell: +1 609 496 9010
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Anti-fraud resources:
