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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- skduncan52@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Meredith Duncan" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <skduncan@datafull.com>
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 09:32:32 -0600
Subject: Please kindly reply us back immediately.
Dear please kindly receive this letter with due respect as it might be very strange to you since I have not communicated with you or know each other before, I and my junior sister were victims of war from Cote d`Ivoire, our late father was killed by rebels, he was a wealthy coffee and Cacao beans Merchant. We lost our beloved mother 6 years ago for breast cancer after painful surgery. Please we are seeking for your kind assistance to help us to come and invest our inheritance money into hotel business in your country where you can help us to manage it on our behalf because we do not have any business experience before to manage the huge sum of $5.4 million US dollars we inherited from our late father`s account. I am 21 yrs old and my junior sister is 19 yrs old. We will appreciate to receive your urgent useful reply as soon as you receive this message with your private cell phone number.
Please kindly reply us back immediately.
Via E-mail: skduncan52@yahoo.com
Best regards
Meredith and Steve Duncan
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Anti-fraud resources:
