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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)
- "cashier's check" (Beware of any scheme that involves cashing checks or money orders and then wiring a portion of the funds somewhere - you'll be liable for the entire amount if the checks or money orders turn out to be fake, even after you have received and forwarded cash. If it's a lottery prize, remember that real lotteries do not pay large prizes by check. They wire the money directly to your bank account and you do not pay for that. Many scammers promise a large check only in order to then demand payment of courier fees for a fake courier service. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: imfsecretary.usa1@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2023 22:12:47 -0100
Subject: OFFICE OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
OFFICE OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF).?
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF)
HEAD OFFICE. WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATE OF AMERICA.
This e-mail has been issued to you again in order to Officially inform
you that we have completed an investigation on International
Payment in which was issued to you by World Bank and With the help of our
newly developed technology (International Monitoring Network System)
we discovered that you were not able to complete your transfer because
of the amount involved. During our investigation we discovered that
your fund worth ($10.5 million) is still available and we have authorized
the fund to be paid to you via a Certified Cashier's Check, ATM or Via
Wire Transfer.choose from the above options of payment and send to us
immediately to proceed with the payment.N/B make sure you send your
contact phone number and address with your transaction code:
Best regards
Kristalina Georgieva
Imf Secretary Washington district
United States of America
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This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.
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Anti-fraud resources:
