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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: rida musta <ridamu1@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <ridamustaa1@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 03:59:33 +0000
Subject: help me
Hello dear,
I am Mrs. Rida Al Mutasim from England, I am a childless widow. I fought
against cancer fibroid problems and hearing impairment as a result of drug
reactions. We were married for eight years without children. He died after a
short illness. Recently, my doctor told me that I would not last long in the
next 3 months because of my illness with cancer. I have a deposit of I want to
invest this fund into charity organization; In short I want to use it to
improve humanity. I am taking this decision because I do not have a child who
will inherit this money and I can not believe my relatives, because they were
hostile to me, since I have been suffering cancer. As soon as I receive your
reply I shall inform my lawyer to help you for the release of the fund to you.
send me your reply in this email
Mrs. Rida Al Mutasim
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Anti-fraud resources: