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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 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: "Diplomatic Delivery Service." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <diplomaticng.government@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:51:33 -0800
Subject: please read.. confidential
As the first quater of this year is coming to an end, the federal government of nigeria use this medium to apologise to you for delay or not get you aware of you fund...your email was among the randomly selected mails who won $8.5million dollars.to know more about your found please fill this form bellow ....
also people that has in one way or the other been scamed by the nigerian hudlums claiming to be a government officials or bank official.please if you have send money to any body in nigeria to claim your fund please reply to this mail.the federal government is ready to pay back your money in as much you have the details you used to send the money.....fill this questioneer...
your name in full..
your address......
your telephone number....
you eamail address...
looking forward to your reply.
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Anti-fraud resources:
