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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:
- "keep this confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Senator Ike Ekweremadu" <senator.ikee@aol.com>
Reply-To: senator.ikee@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 07:28:56 -0700
Subject: FOR INVESTMENT PLEASE
- This mail is in HTML. Some elements may be ommited in plain text. -
Dear Good Friend,
I have a Very important request that made me to contact you; I am Senator Ike Ekweremadu ,A senator of federal republic of Nigeria.I found Your profile very interesting and decided to reach you directly to solicit your assistance and Guidelines in making a business investment and transfer of some huge amount of fund to your country for investment of real-estate,five(5) star hotel and shopping mall with gas station.Base on your own idea of business.
With your sincere assistance and co-operation be so kind to contact me at your earlier convince. I am determine to work this deal out if we can agree to work together.I will issue more details about this business until your response is received,I will also need you to sending me your personal contact information for more details.Please due to my position here in the government i advise you to keep this confidential.
Waiting to hear from you as soon as possible.
Regards,
Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
Deputy Senate President of
Federal Republic of Nigeria
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Anti-fraud resources:
