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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "contact me immediately" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- mrs.joyadams527@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "mrs.joy adams" <joyadams527@outlook.com>
Reply-To: "mrs.joy adams" <mrs.joyadams527@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 09:47:01 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?Please_Respond_to_me.=E2=80=8F............=E2=80=8F?=
 ATTENTION:
 I received encouraging information about you and how trusts worthy youare. I am delighted with such useful information. My name is Ms joyadams I am the manager of auditing and accounting department of BANKOF AFRICA (B.O.Ahere in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
 In my department i discovered an abandoned sum US$5.5 million usdollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer whodied along with his entire family on July 2008 in a plane crash. Sincewe got information about his death, we have been expecting his next ofkin to come over and claim his money because we can not release itunless some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to thedeceased.
 Unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relationdied alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind forthe claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided tomake this business proposal to you, so that the money can be releaseto your account as the next of kin. And I agreed to offer you 30% ofthis money as my foreign partner after confirmation of the fund inyour bank account.You should contact me immediately as soon as youreceive this letter.
 Trusting to hear from you
immediately. Respond to me with this mail address mrs.joyadams527@hotmail.com
Yours Sincerely, Ms joy adams
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Anti-fraud resources: