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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:
- "sarabila@live.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- "sarabila@live.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Sara Bilal" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sarabila@live.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2011 22:17:53 +0100
Subject: Expecting immediate response
From . Sara Bilal
Rabat Al maghrib ,
Kingdom or Morroco
sarabila@live.com
Hello Dear,
I am Miss Sara Bilal 17yrs from the (Rabat) Al maghrib Kingdom or Morroco. I am contacting
you because I need your help in management and investiment of some amount that my father left for me before
demise.
My father was a very successful businessman , he has local gold and diamond mines is many parts of Africa. He was
poisoned by his brothers , my uncles that was assisting him in his business due to envy and they are now after
me so I had to escape to another country where i am presently living waiting for help to come.
Please I want you to stand as my guardian to enable me receive the money in your country and as well assist me
secure papers that will enable me come over to your country immediately for continuation of my education and
investing of the money according to your advise.
Please let me your interest in taking me along because my present situation here is critically
frustrating. I dont know anyone here and i am a young girl . I have to come here because of fraustration and fear that same thing that happened to my mother
and father will not happen to me untill i finally settle down for my studies.
I will be waiting for your response via (sarabila@live.com) and please kindly let me know if you are not willing so
that I can continue searching.
Yours sincerely
Sara Bilal
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Anti-fraud resources:
