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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 orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "George Makoto" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <george.makoto@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 06:32:15 -0800
Subject: I need your assistance.
Hello ,
My name is George ,I am 18years old Orphan.
I am contacting you based on trust and I hope you will treat this offer with keen interest and utmost sincerity.My late father co-owned an oil servicing firm here in Africa before he was assassinated by one of his business associates.But before his death, he deposited a very huge sums of money in a private financial security firm abroad.
Now I want to know if you can volunteer to assist me in life as a guardian/foster parent whom I can entrust this fund to for its investment since I am too young and inexperience.
Meanwhile as soon as you receive this fund, you have to make an immediate travel arrangement for my coming over to your country to further my education while you invest and manage the fund in your country since am afraid that those responsible to my fathers death might possibly be after me.
So Please if you are willing to assist me please do not hesitate to indicate your interest in replying .
Best regards.
George.
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Anti-fraud resources:
