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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: lina amand <lina_amand8u@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: amand.lina@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 01:38:19 +0900 (JST)
Subject: PLEASE I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE
Hello Dear,
I am miss Lina Amand,I am 22 years old from Cote d'Ivoire,daughter of Mr Raymond Amand a known bussines man here before his untimely death. Before the death of my late father he deposited 4.5 million USD in one of the banks here which he use my name as the next of kin and the only doughter which
was left in a suspence account here in my country. Sir please I seek your permision to remmit this amount into your bank account so that I could come to your country for investment and to further my studies. I have accepted to offer you a resonable percentage of the total sum for your desire to
assist me.
Please I have suffered alot of humuliation from my immidiate uncles due to this funds that is the reason I contact you to help me secure the money in your country so that I can come over and continue my education from were I stoped.
I will be looking farward to hear your response.
Best Regards,
Miss Lina Amand.
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