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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: Edith Odily <edith_odily@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: edithdkasala@ymail.com
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:29:01 -0800 (PST)
Subject: MY DEAR
Good Day
My name is Edith Kassala, I am
a loving, caring, romantic and faithfull girl. I saw your profile
today on and i became interested in you, hence i was moved to contact
you. I will like to know you more. Kindly send a mail to my email
address so i can give you my picture for you to know whom l am. Here is
my email address edithdkasala@ymail.com
I believe we can move from
here. I am waiting for your mail to my email address above. miss
Edith..(Remember the distance or colour does not matter but love matters
a lot in life) Please reply me with my email address here
edithdkasala@ymail.com I am waiting for your mail.
Your new friend,
Edith
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Anti-fraud resources:
