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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Andrew Long" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <andrewlong@o2.pl>
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:03:51 -0800
Subject: Reply soonest
This message will be the last notification that I will send to you as my earlier
letters to you through Post Office was returned undelivered. I decided to reach
you via email because this information needs urgent attention.
I'm contacting you because you share the same name with our client who died in 2004,
and the management of my bank has issued me a notice to provide an
extended next of kin of the deceased or have the account confiscated within the
next One week.
I am the Telex Department manager of my bank and also the personal account
officer to the deceased, and I will be disappointed if the labor of my deceased
client are confiscated.
So kindly get back to me with your full name and address for appraisal.
Best Regards
Andrew Long
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Anti-fraud resources:
