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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. Dorothy Armstrong" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <doarmstrong@gmx.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 17:35:12 -0400
Subject: assure me
Dear Beloved
I am sending you this mail in good faith. I am Mrs. Dorothy Armstrong now undergoing medical treatment for cancer. My late husband was a contractor with the United Kingdom consulate for many years before his death in 2002. We had an account with a financial institution in the UK where we deposited our life savings. Recently, I have being diagnosed with a terminal cancer and only have few months to live due to the cancer problem.
Having known my condition; I have decided to nominate you as my beneficiary since the financial company has now written me that the length of time agreed upon to hold my funds have now expired. My desire and purpose is for you to promote humanitarian works. I.e. assisting the less privileged and building orphanage homes in your country and to upset my medical bills.
Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein. I will give you further details when I hear from you via email.
In His Arms.
Mrs. Dorothy Armstrong
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Anti-fraud resources:
