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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:
- "i will like you to " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: rose aliyu <nnit77@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: rosealiyu1@ymail.com
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 06:02:17 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: hello
Hello my dear.
My name is rose aliyu,
it give me a great happiness to write to you this latter after viewing your profile to day which really interest me to contact you and to send you this mail because you are such a man i need in my life my language is English if you can have the same mind and kind to me i will like us to know each other. i will like you to send email back please i will like you to send me your email address so that i will tell you more about my self and also my picture you to know who i am .hope you understand.thanks.And i will like you to contact me trough my email address
Am waiting to see your lovely reply soonest.
Miss rose
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Anti-fraud resources:
