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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: "Mother Agne George" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <agnesgeorge171@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2017 12:49:54 -0700
Subject: YOURS LOVELY FRIEND
Dear Fri end,
My name is Mrs Agnes George Joh nson I got your contact through YOUR COU NTRY’S BUSI NE SS DI RE CT ORY on my desperate search for an honest person to assist me then I decided to co nt act you I have a bu si nes s pr op osal for you which involves a huge amo un t of mo ne y that run into m ill io ns of U S d ol l ars for Ch ar ity Do na ti ons and in ve st me nt, please this is not a sp am, its a re al bu sin ess that will benefit both of us. Please try as much as possible to get back to me on this, i will explain more to you when you finally respond.
Yours Beloved
Mother Ag nes Geo rge
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Anti-fraud resources:
