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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: "Mr.Robert Moore" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <karleric15@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2011 05:15:54 -0700
Subject: I NEED YOUR REPLY
Day!
I am the Group General Manager of an International Bank located in the City of Accra Ghana in West Africa. I came to you for a Business Deal that may interest you and would like you to confirm your acceptance to move forward. I have under my Portfolio an Account that has not bee operated for a number of years as a result of Death of the Beneficiary and this Account has a Closing Balance of US$52.6million.I want to make you the Next of Kin to the Account in order to claim the funds on our behalf with a sharing ratio of 50:50.Could you send me your telephone numbers for discussion of this offer in more details. I look forward to hearing from you shortly.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mr.Robert Moore
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Anti-fraud resources:
