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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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Jean =?iso-8859-1?Q?Fran=E7ois?= " <andre@labcat.com.br>
Reply-To: francjen210@yahoo.fr
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:14:14 -0300
Subject: Bonjour
--
Bonjour, Je suis Jean François.
Je
voudrais solliciter votre accord ? Recevoir un montant de deux millions deux cent soixante six mille USD (2.266.000 USD) en tant que
mon proche parent.
Sachez bien que cette fortune se trouve présentement dans une société de finances qui garde les biens des
familles et transports aussi les biens vers l'étranger.
J’ai décidé de vous contacter afin que vous m'aidiez a receptionner mon heritage.
Une fois que vous aurez réceptionné les fonds je vous recompeserz de 25% de de la somme totale.
Si vous êtes consentant, prière de
me contacter dans l'immédiat et je vous donnerez plus de détails. Recevez mes sincères salutations.
Jean François
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Anti-fraud resources: