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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: "Mrs.Carol Gerry" <gerrycarol407@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: mrs.gerrycarol@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 09:40:55 -0400
Subject: I Need Your Assistance.
I am Mrs.Carol Gerry and a widow to Late Mr.Antonio Gerry. I am 57 years o=
ld, suffering from long time cancer of the bone marrow, (blood). From all i=
ndications, my condition is really deteriorating and is quite obvious that =
I may not live more than two months after my next surgery, because the canc=
er stage has gotten to a very bad stage and my personal physician told me t=
hat I may not live for more than four months and I am so scared about it. I=
have no child of mine. I will want you to claim my funds(Nine million Unit=
ed States dollars and distribute it to the charity.The funds are in a Bank =
I will give you 20% of the total fund for your assistance. 1. Can you handl=
e this project? 2. Can I give you this trust ? I wait your response for mor=
e details. Mrs.Carol Gerry
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Anti-fraud resources:
