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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: "Shukri Ghanem" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <gshukri98@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2011 18:54:08 -0800
Subject: HI
Hi,
Greetings to you and your family, firstly I apologize for sending you this sensitive information via e-mail, instead of a Certified mail/Post-mail. This is due to the urgency and importance of the information.
My name is Shukri Ghanem, the Libyan oil minister and head of the National Oil Co-operation of Libya. I would like to use your relationship with me to pull my wealth out from our African continent. I was high-ranking Libyan official but I defected and fled the country on the May 17th 2011. I have huge amount of fund with Oilibya Petroleum Company in Ivory Coast I need help to divert this fund far from Africa .
Thank you
Shukri Ghanem
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Anti-fraud resources:
