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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: James Olsen <olsnsms@aol.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: olsnsms@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 14:16:31 +0400 (MSD)
Subject: Urgent Reply/ Intestate Claim.
Re: Intestate Claim.
My name is Mr. James Olsen and I was privileged to serve as the legal adviser and investment officer of my deceased client who lost his life sometime ago. In the process of review of his bank financial reports it was discovered that he left the sum of 5.8M Euro INTESTATE. Upon enquiry for his kins I discovered that you are related to him as well as shared a common last names, hence my contacting you so that I can give you further briefing on my intention and how to go about the facilitation and disbursement of the estate he left behind. I will most appreciate your prompt response, as that would enable us to start something immediately.
kind Regards,
James Olsen.
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Anti-fraud resources:
