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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: "Miss. Gloria S. Cavalanni" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <gloriacavala@qq.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2014 13:53:03 +0100
Subject: Hello ,7/04/2014 .
I will be very brief with this and if you have interest in this message, I suggest you act on it immediately by responding to this Ad.
I have a sensitive, confidential brief and I am asking for your partnership in re-profiling funds.
You must be very discrete in the area of confidentiality and transparency in all communications and monetary discussions that we will be discussing and I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. I shall let you know what is required of you and modalities of operations.
Best Regards,
Miss. Gloria S. Cavalanni
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Anti-fraud resources: