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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: RACHELLE ONEIL <webxxrachellex2022@att.net>
Reply-To: rachelle.oneil@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:44:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Hello Can we Be Friends?
Hello Can we Be Friends?
Am Rachelle ,I saw your profile which
interested me much and i decided to contact you.I really want to have a
good friendship with you
i want us to be friends OK ,i have a reason
of
selecting you as my friend,please if you wish to know my reasons
try contact me
through this my email We need to talk and
know
yourself more and equally share pictures to each other.hope to hear
from
you.
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Anti-fraud resources:
