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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:
- "million united state 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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Reply Waiting <omlsr00@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: Reply Waiting <vvsoroo@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 00:58:14 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Greetings
Greetings
Greetings in the precious name of lord. My name is Virginia
Gapuz a nationality of Philippine. I am married to Late Dr. Joseph
Gapuz, a business man/ member of the movement for national freedom
before his death as a result of plane crash on his bussiness trip to
Japan. Though I have not considered this medium to be the best manner to
have approached you on this issue being that the Internet has been
greatly abused over the recent years and is very unsecured for
information's of vital importance,
I have decided to take the
chance seeing that no other means could have been faster and more
efficient than the E-mail as my health condition is deteriorating by the
day as a cancer patients I have five million united state dollars I
want you to handle for me in God,s glory. So Get back for more Info.
Thanks God bless you
Mrs
Virginia Gapuz
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Anti-fraud resources:
