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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mariel Jason" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <marieljason@yandex.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2016 10:26:51 +0100
Subject: How are you
Dear friend,
So pleased to write you. I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know that I am interested in getting to know more about you after much search I found this your contact. Do you have any personal email so we could exchange and talk better from there also to send you some pics of mine. I must tell you am a business woman who seems to be so busy sometimes cos i do have some personal thought which i believe it could only be expose to each other on our personal email if really you are serious about it..and also to tell you more about me, also to know more about you.. I guarantee that I am a nice lady and know how to treat a man... I have a degree in Accounting and minnor in Art. you seems to be a very down to earth man and I really admire that! .I guess I will leave you with this for now. I hope your day went well and I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for reading this! I practically wrote you a book! Hehe Feel free to write me back directly.
From
Mariel
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This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
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Anti-fraud resources:
