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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:
- "hundred thousand us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Ms.Gloria Pesaga" <pesaga_gloria@yahoo.com.ph>
Reply-To: "Ms.Gloria Pesaga" <gloria.pesaga@yahoo.com.ph>
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 05:32:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Greetings
In a brief I am Ms.Gloria Pesaga the only daughter of late Dr and Mrs Samuel Pesaga I come from a French speaking country cote d'ivoire in West Africa and my reason of contacting you is to assist me come to your country and invest my inheritance which my late father left before his death, a balance of Nine Million Eight hundred Thousand US Dollars ($9.800.000.00) was found in my late father offshore business bank account I was demanded by the officials of the Bank to provide a foreign investor as trustee to meet the agreement written by my late father not to allow me mismanagement this fund.
Dear I am looking forward to read from you.
Ms.Gloria Pesaga.
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Anti-fraud resources:
