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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: "Egna Martin" <egnamartin@ymail.com>
Reply-To: egna.martin@laposte.net
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 20:28:59 +0300 (EAT)
Subject: Please help us
Dear respected,
My name is Egna Martin from ivory coast in Africa; I am 16yrs old and a
student. I have a younger sister Cynthia Raoul. We are orphans because we
lost are parents during the past political crisis here in my country.
Sorry for this very sudden message for we are contacting you for your
assistance in helping us in securing the fund ($16.5million) inheritance
left behind here in a bank. They said we are still underage and uncle want
take the money away the fund by force without sending us to school.
Please if you will accept to help us get the fund, we promise to give you
at least 30% and we will move over to your country to further our
education while as well living in your house. Right now we are in the
streets since we ran away with the bank documents because of my uncle.
We would give you all the details if you accept to help us in our next
message to you.
Egna and Cynthia Martin.
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Anti-fraud resources:
