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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: alicia samuel <aliciask4@att.net>
Reply-To: alicia_2000000@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 13:07:14 -0700 (PDT)
Subject:
My name Miss Alicia am 25yr old . I saw your profile today and it really
acttract me alot i believe that you are the person i have been looking
for to share my love and business with ; How is your health? i hope all
is well with you. I believe that we can move from here ; but remember
that distance;age and colour dose not matter what matters is the true
love,relationship and understanding; in my next e-mail i shall include
my pictuer; i will be waithing for your reply is urgent don't fall to
replay me back for further introduction please don't ignore this
messega.
Bye with love.
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Anti-fraud resources:
