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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: Abudou Balla <abuballa.mr@att.net>
Reply-To: abudouballa15@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:59:27 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Hello from the technical director
Hello from the technical director
I am the incumbent Technical Director in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing(Federal Republic of Senegal) and I have the privilege of office to facilitate the claim of an over-invoiceed amount USD$14.5M(FOURTEEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED SATES DOLLARS)in a special arrangement that will gain official approval and recommendation by the Ministry of Finance.
I have prepared the grounds to present you as a sub-contractor and would provide the necessary papers in the contract file to back the claim application in your favor according to the legal requirements in the ministry.
Hoping your positive response for us to discuss details on the modalities of the transaction and ensure you include your full contact numbers for more clarifications in this matter.
Best Regards
Eng.Abudou Balla
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Anti-fraud resources:
