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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- marydiane43@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Marry Diane <love_xxx_baby@att.net>
Reply-To: marydiane43@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 04:04:21 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: hello
marydiane43@yahoo.com
Hope you are doing well.
My name is marry, In search of a man who understand the real meaning of
love as trust and faith in each other rather than one who sees love as
the only way of fun, but a matured Man with nice vision of what the
world is all about, and after reading your profile here in
google searching
I took Interest in you, so pleas reply me with this Email ( marydiane43@yahoo.com ).
I will be very happy to read your reply so that i will send my picture to you then we can start know more about each other.
Thanks .
marry
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Anti-fraud resources: