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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: Florence Martinez <florence67martinez@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Florence Martinez <florence03martinez@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2017 06:13:54 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Hello My Beloved
Hello dear,
an excuse to interfere in your private life. My name is Mrs Florence. I have at the moment a sick of the disease of cancer and I would like to give my inheritance, that my deceased husband has left with a financial institution in the Ivory Coast. Recently, my doctor told me that I could not live more than two months from now because of my cancer disease. I want you to use the money to make investments that will create jobs for the population without employment and less privileged. Please respond quickly for more details if you can manage this task meanwhile any delay in your reply will give me the chance to contact another person for this same purpose.
Sincerely yours.
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Anti-fraud resources: