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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 "dying widow" scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Mrs Ahalam Abdul <kenyacustomagent@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ahalam201@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2016 09:41:36 +0200
Subject: Assalamu Alaikum.
Assalamu Alaikum.
Dear Thank you for your mail and i will appreciate your fast respond
to my email I am Mrs Ahlam Abdullah Ali from London United Kingdom I
am married to Late Mr Abdullah Ali of blessed memory who was a well
known Gold dealer from Kuwait to London for throughout his life before
he died in the year 2010. We were married for 11 years without a
child.
I inherited the sum of One Million British Pound Sterling (£
1.000.000.00 GBP) From the family business and I want to donate it for
the service of humanity and I have chosen you for this service,
because I have been diagnosed of a cancer that can not permit me to
survive next 2 months and I have no child to inherit and my husband
relatives are non religious and will misuse the fund.
Get back to me for proper explanations and details.
Mrs Ahalam
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Anti-fraud resources:
