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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. Jessica G" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrsjessicagarry1@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 21 May 2020 14:29:19 -0700
Subject: ATTENTION NEEDED
I am Mrs. Jessica Garry Mcminnon, a widow and suffering from long time cancer of the breast with only few months to live according my Doctors, I inherited my late husband's wealth after his death because during the period of our marriage we couldn't produce any child. I have decided to divide this wealth to churches, Mosques AND also to good men and women in order to help the less privileged.
I selected you to be in charge of this my Dream Project (Charity) after learning about your love for humanity and I am willing to donate the sum of US$35million to you to start my Dream Project for the less privileged since I cannot handle the Project myself due to my poor health condition.
God bless you and your family.
Waiting for your reply
Yours Faithful,
Mrs. Jessica Garry Mcminnon
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Anti-fraud resources:
