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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: "Timothy Bophal" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <timothybophal@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 19:43:18 +0700
Subject: Investment
Good day and happy New Year, I saw your profile which attracted me so much when I was searching for the last name of our deceased partner who deposited money in our bank 7 years ago. I saw your name as the same with his own name. I humbly requesting from you if both of us can invest in your country with the money which is $9.8 million. Please if you accept this do send the bellow information so we can start on the processing of this money into your account.
Your first name and last name .......................
Your address .......................
Your country ...................
Your occupation/job .........................................
Your phone number...................................................
Your age ...................................................................
Thanks and God bless you
Timothy Bophal
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Anti-fraud resources:
