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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "charles soludo" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE <fmf_boardoftrustee@virgilio.it>
Reply-To: fmf_boardoftrustee@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:02:54 +0100 (GMT+01:00)
Subject: THIS IS THE NEW DEVELOPMENT...
This is to bring to your notice that your contract payment which was suspended
by Prof Charles soludo was forwarded to the office of the presidency this
morning as unpaid contractor, so I The newly CBN governor Mr. Lamido Sansui I
ask you why you have not received your fund of $10.5m? I advised you to
reconfirm your full information because I the newly elected governor of (CBN)
Dr. Lamido
Sanusi I am paying all contactors
Dr. Lamido Sanusi
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Anti-fraud resources:
