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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:
- "million american dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Scott Anderson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <scott.anderson343@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 06:54:44 +0200
Subject: 8 ways to make quick cash in 8 days.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY>
<P><FONT size=4 face=Garamond>Scott Anderson here; and I am financial lawyer and
on the legal frame for some of the top banks in the world. There is a transaction
I want to introduce to you and you(we) stand to make 3.8 million American
dollars before taxes. It is legal and this sort of transaction comes every few
years but we both will need to make few payments along the process. </FONT></P>
<P> </P>
<P><FONT size=4 face=Garamond>Reply this message if you are interested so I can
tell you all about it and if not <STRONG>PLEASE</STRONG> ignore.
Thanks.</FONT></P></BODY></HTML>
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Anti-fraud resources: