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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:
- "stay blessed" (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Rosemary Connor" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <rosemaryconnor60@live.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:39:23 -0400
Subject: Dear Beloved One/ Reply with good faith.
Dear beloved one i am sending you this mail in a good faith.
I am Mrs. Rosemary Connor from UK am undergoing medical treatment for Cancer. I lost my husband some years
back and he was a contractor with the United Kingdom Consulate for many years before his death in 2002. we had account
with a Financial institution in the UK where we deposited our life savings.
Recently, I have been diagnosed with a terminal cancer and i have only few months to live due to the cancer problem.
Having known my condition, i have decided to nominate you as my beneficiary since the Financial company has now
written to me that the length of time agreed upon to hold our fund have now expired. My desire and purpose is for you to
promote humanitarian works. I.e. assisting the less privileged and building orphanage homes in your country and anywhere else you think of
and to tide up my medical bills. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as i stated here in.
I will give you more details upon your response.
Stay blessed and always pray for m,e,
Mrs. Rosemary Connor.
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Anti-fraud resources:
