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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.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447045720486 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs.Angelina Keith" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <georgegreg@deliveryman.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:08:00 +0100
Subject: Inheritance (Contact DHL)
I am Mother Angelina Lucy Keith, 87 Years old woman and the wife of Late
Sir Abery Keith who died in a Plane crash on Monday the 7th of September
1998 GMT 14:22 UK while they were flying from New York to Geneva. Please
see site below for more information.
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/index.html
Contact Person: Mr. George Greg
Email: dhlcouriers1@bigmir.net
Tel: +44 704 572 0486
Please, try to contact them as soon as you receive this mail to avoid any
further delay.
Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Angelina Keith
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Anti-fraud resources:
