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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: "Mrs. Mary Marshal" <mary@mail.com>
Reply-To: mrsmary@live.co.uk
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 03:38:00 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: Family Update / Mrs Mary Marshal,
Dear,
I bring greetings to you in the name of Almighty. I don’t want you to take
this letter as a spam mail or fraud attempt. My name is Mrs. Mary Marshal
and seriously suffering from Cancer after the death of my husband Harry
Marshal. I have two children, a boy and a girl.
I want to invest the sum of $19.5M in your country, I am not asking you
for any money rather for you to hold this fund in trust and invest it in a
reliable business, then I will come over to meet with you for proper
medication and secure the future of my children.
I will give you details immediately I get your response.
Thanks and God bless
Mrs. Mary
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Anti-fraud resources:
