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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: Sofia Johnson <sofiajohnson01@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Sofia Johnson <jsofia59@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2016 06:44:17 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Hello dear, Permit me to inform you my interest of going into business relationship with you. As I have inherited the sum of 6.4MUSD from my late father who died recently. I have the intention of investing this sum with your care and supervision in country with a percentage that will be negotiated among us. Contact me on this for more details. if case you did not get my e-mail ID very well than you can give me your own. from Ivory Coast West Africa Ms.Sofia Johnson
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Anti-fraud resources:
