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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <fatsan14@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2017 21:14:23 +0200
Subject: May Allah grant you the heart to assist me
Dear Sir,
Thanks for giving attention to my mail.
It with great pain i write you this mail, I am Mrs.Fatima Abdullan Al Senussi from Libya, I am the wife of late Mr Abdullan Al Senussi the former head of Libyan Intelligence Department who was captured and killed during the rebel attack in my country,Libya.
I am writing you to seek your assistance in helping me and my family receive and safeguard the sum of (USD$6.2M) which was deposited in a foreign account before the rebel attack.I am contacting you to help us receive this money since the new Libyan Government have taking over all we have here and more so are not allowing us to travel out of my country Libya.Even some people my late husband helped when he was alive have turned out to be against us now.What an irony of life.Please we need your help in this regard and I promised you never regret helping me and my family in this transaction and moreover there is no risk in this transaction.
Get back to me as soon as you get this mail so that I can tell you how you can receive this money on our behalf.
May Allah grant you the heart to assist me.
Thanks.
Best Regards,
Mrs.Fatima Abdullan Al Senussi.
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Anti-fraud resources:
