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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 "dying widow" scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Adeela Batal <batal1@tkm.att.ne.jp>
Reply-To: abatal@ymail.com
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:12:35 +0900
Subject: urgent
I obtained your e-mail address from a Directory of mail and decided to send you for the permission to a charity work on my behalf. I am Mrs Adeela Batal, a widow to late Baasim Batal of Kuwait, my late husband worked with the embassy of Kuwait to Ivory Coast for nine years before to die in 2007 and We were married for twenty years without a child. I am soon in a hospital where I underwent treatment of lungs Cancer. I have since lost my capacity to speak and my doctors said me that I have only some months to live. Having known my condition i have decided to find a trustworthy to utilize 60% of the money i inherited from my late husband for charity purposes on my behalf. The urgent response extremely is needed of you on this consideration. Mrs Adeela Batal.
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Anti-fraud resources:
