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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "western union" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "mtcn" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
- 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.
- wu2491248@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Lord Janny <uma-ml@apost.plala.or.jp>
Reply-To: wu2491248@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2023 18:16:58 +0900
Subject: Urgent Response is needed
Dear Beneficiary Your Urgent Response is needed.
We are contacting you because we have sent you the first payment of $
5,000 MTCN Ref (#4752658518) by Western Union this morning from your
Inheritance winning funds total amount of $10.5 Million USD, Therefore you
need to contact our Western Union Agent (Mr Lord Janny) today. Please
try and contact him as quickly as possible once you receive this email.
and ask him to furnish your Western Union payment information to you
completely (MTCN Reference Numbers and Senders full information) which we
have sent today and it will be activated to your own information's once
you contact him ,Remember to Indicate your registration code of EB-2520
to him when E-mailing or calling him today. Also make sure you fill in
your below information for him to reconfirm that you are the rightful
beneficiary, because he will be sending you $5,000.00 daily as per our
office discussion with him Control Number of today is below.
You can track it by typing :
https://www.westernunion.com/global-service/track-transfer
then you enter this MTCN NUMBER:#4752658518
Sender's First Name:_ Moses
Sender's Last Name:___ Egini
Once again be advice to reconfirm your information such as;
(full Name*:
(Your Address*:
(Your Country*:
(Phone Number*:
(Your Age*:
(Occupation*:
(ID copy*:
(Email Address*:
Our Agent: Mr Lord Janny
Phone: WHATSAPP +2349027714122
Email:(wu2491248@gmail.com)
NOTE: That your payment files will be returned to the United States
Treasurer Departments account within 48hours if he didn't hear from you
because this was the instructions given to him by our office. Agent Steven
will furnish your payment to you as soon as he receives reconfirmation of
your above information and your Transfer Permit and Fund Release Order
Certificate charge fee.You are hereby warned not to communicate or
duplicate this message to anyone for security reasons due to Fraud.
Sincerely,
WESTERN UNION CEO
Mr Hikmet Ersek.
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Anti-fraud resources:
