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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "gloriaranklin12@outlook.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: gloria1222@live.com
Reply-To: gloriaranklin12@outlook.com
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2014 22:15:50 +0200
Subject: Hello,
Dear friend
Please accept my offer, i may not know you in person but i don't know why my mind directed me to locate you. i am a widow sick of cancer and i just got a
message from my doctor which noted me that i have few days to spend on earth. i am willing to will all have to you. i don't know the mood you are right now
but i apologize if this mail meet you in a sober mood. kindly revert back at me as soon as possible before it could be too late so i can explain more on this
and what to do nest. note i am sending this mail on a mail sending box and you are to contact me on my personal email address which is
(gloriaranklin12@outlook.com) thanks and God bless you
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Anti-fraud resources:
