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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.Ken Anderson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <kenanderson60@live.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2012 18.05.57 +0100
Subject: Re:Good Day
Good day;
I am Ken Anderson,British citizen and Principal Assurance Manager
for the HSBC in London. A staff of Yokozona Consultancy Firm got in
touch with me regarding an Estate of Philip Smith; and an investment
placed under our Banks Management 3 years ago. I would respectfully
request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and
respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of
this mail. I contact you independent of our investigation and no one
is informed of this communication.I will bring you to the complete
picture of this transaction as soon as i hear back from you.Kindly
reply if interested for further information and instructions.
Regards,
Ken Anderson
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Anti-fraud resources:
