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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "confidential business" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Daniel Egobia" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <Daniel_Egobia@Aggies.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:45:55 +0100
Subject: Re: For Your Attention
From: Mr. Daniel Egobia
My name is Daniel Egobia, a top Civil Servant in the Petroleum Ministry here in Nigeria, West Africa l wish to do a confidential business with you. l have a sum of 15 million Euro l want to entrust on you for investment.
Should you give the offer a favorable consideration, We shall discuss the matter in detail and then agree on a working modalities for you to receive the
funds.
l wait your response for more detail information.
Yours sinerely,
Daniel Egobia
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Anti-fraud resources:
