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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: Patricia Hartshorn <balsams@sbcglobal.net>
Reply-To: baslams@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 28 May 2013 04:49:22 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: URGENT HELP
Hope you get this on time? I am sorry i didn't inform you about my trip.
I traveled to Belgium to visit a new researchers complex and and
unfortunately for me the hotel i lodged got razed by fire.all my
valuables including cash,cell phones and my traveling documents were
destroyed during the inferno but luckily for me i still have my passport
with me.i have contacted the police but they are not responding to the
matter effectively they only asked me to write a statement about the
incident and referred me to the embassy in Wales.
Please i really
need your assistance for me to go to the embassy and also to the
airline office so i can start processing a new flight ticket.i am also
having problems settling outstanding hotel bills and the hotel
management are not helping matters at all please let me know if you can
help me out, Thanks.
Waiting for your mail.
Balsams Staff
313/719-2680 till May 20
906/634-2191 from May 20-October
God Bless You and hope to see you soon!!
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Anti-fraud resources:
