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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:
- "my names are " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: robcole@consul.org
Reply-To: robcole@consultant.com
Date: Fri, 23 May 2014 22:04:27 +0000
Subject: GREETINGS FROM ROBERT
Greetings,
My Names are Robert Cole and I was instructed to contact you by the Director of British Petroleum (BP) about the Late David (Engineer) the foreign contractor with the British Petroleum and who died in 2009 earthquake in Indonesia, Late David completed his contract with the BP and was suppose to get paid in the early month of 2010 before the sudden death, my boss the General Managing Director of BP by the virtue of her position is ready to award you the next of kin clearance papers as that will legally approve you the next of kin to Late David.
If you are interested to receive the money as the next of kin to the deceased then Every given information remains confidential and will earn you 20% of the contract value.
Regards
Robert Cole.
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Anti-fraud resources: