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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: "Mr. Elijah Miller" <info@admin.org>
Reply-To: elijah.miller14@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:02:22 +1200 (PETST)
Subject: HELP!!! MY WIFE WANTS TO KILL ME!!!!!!!!
Good day,
I am Elijah Miller, an Australian engineer who has been in africa for the
past 20years.
I just discovered that my African wife of the past 5years has been feeding
me little portions of poison in my food for some time now and it is
killing me slowly. Even as I am writing now I am very weak and can
pass-out any minute.
She has perfected her plan to inherit all my property in africa and abroad.
As I have no other family I will want to hand over a part of my fortune to
you a good samarithan and ask that you give to charity under my trust
foundation you will set up for me.I prefer to give this sum to charity
than for it to fall into the hands of this evil woman.
Get back to me as soon as possible and I will release all the necessary
informations to you.
Please be quick as I am dying slowly on my sick bed.She has locked me in
this room to die.
Regards
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Anti-fraud resources:
