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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: "Larissa Kouakou" <hankl@t-online.de>
Reply-To: lari20k@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:53:54 +0200
Subject: From Miss Larissa Kouakou, Dear please I need your help to relocate
to your country,
my
dear,
Good day to you. I am Miss Larissa Ano. Kouakou, young girl
student from Cote d'Ivoire. I am an orphan and I need your honest
assistance to transfer my inheritance (USD$4.500, 000.00) which my
father deposited in a private bank in Europe before his assassination
for reason which I will let you know as soon as I hear back from you To
serve as my guardian in your country while I will depend on your expert
advise since l'm a girl of 22yrs. and To make arrangement for me to come
over to your country in order to further my university education and to
secure a residential permit for me in your country. Hoping to hearing
from you soon. May God bless you.Regards Larissa
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Anti-fraud resources:
