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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Mrs nazarian <mrs.nazarian@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Mrs nazarian <nazarian.morsi@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 16:40:25 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Hello dear
Hello dear
How are you today? Please i want you to read this mail carefully and respond me. I contacted you because i want you to take care of my fortune. I have chronic esophageal cancer for years now and my doctor yesterday diagnosed that i have shorter time to live.....
Well i am pleased to locate you and to know if you can accept taking care of my son and building a charity organization for the help of orphans and widows around you with my fortune. I have a reasonable amount of money in my account and i want to hand you over the money so that you can actualize my last wish. I really want my only child to be out of this country when i die for the sake of safety and morality. I hope you will accept my request.
Please, i need your urgent response because of my situation.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. Nazariana.
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Anti-fraud resources:
