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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- chirstmorgan@rediffmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "John Mbah." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <john23mbah@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 05:05:47 -0500
Subject: RESPOND VERY URGENT
RESPOND VERY URGENT
I am John Mbah special account officer to the Former Libya President Moammar Gadhafi who was killed by Libyan rebels on Thursday 20th oct 2011 I write to seek your assistant I have some $53m in my custody which I deposited for him with our bank here in Citibank of London and I was the only person that know about this fund if you are willing to assist me of receiving this money into your account kindly let me hear from you for more details. Reply: chirstmorgan@rediffmail.com
Best Regards and God bless.
John Mbah.
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Anti-fraud resources: