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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Miss.Joy Kruger" <joykruger555@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 15:45:17 +0000
Subject: PLEASE READ AND GET BACK TO ME.
Good Day,
I am miss Joy Kruger from South Africa and I am contacting you because
I need your help in management of some amount that my father left for
me before he died.
My father was a very rich cocoa/timber farmer but was poisoned by his
business colleagues and they are now after me so i had to escape my
way into Republic of Benin.
This money (US$2.5 Million) was deposited in a security and finance
company in Cotonou Benin some years ago by my father and he made me
the sole beneficiary . I am now asking you to stand on my behalf to
claim the deposit from the security company and assist me on investing
it as well in your country. I have made up my mind to offer you 25% of
the total money and also map out 5% for any expensive that will be
made during the transaction while the remaining will go into a
productive investment.
Joy
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Anti-fraud resources:
