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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:
- "i will like you to " (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: Miss Lorita <cv_28@cptelnet.com>
Reply-To: mislorita@writeme.com
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:29:50 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: hi
my name is Lorita, i am a beautiful young girl with full of love and caring, well i saw your profile and i love it, i think we can click together please i will like you to contact me through this my email address ( mislorita@yahoo.in ) contact me with my email address i will like to show you my photos and at the same time you will know more about me.once again please contact me through my email address.don't send it to the site,they will not allow me to read your reply do to i don't have any access their. so please email with my address. thanks for your understanding
Lorita
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Anti-fraud resources:
