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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: "William Ali" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <williamali@qatar.io>
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2010 09:02:49 -0700
Subject: Re: Awaiting to read your email
Greetings to you!
Please do accept my apologies if my mail does not meet your personal ethics, I
want to introduce myself and this business opportunity to you.
My name is Mr.William Ali, a bank accountant. I wish to know if we can work
together. I would like you to stand as the next of kin to my deceased client who
made deposit of ?15 Million Euro to my bank.
He died on plane crash in Marathon, Greece without any registered next of kin and
as such the funds now have an open beneficiary mandate.Fortunately, both of you
have the same last name so it will be very easy to make you become his official
next of kin.
If you are interested you do let me know so that I can give you Comprehensive
details on what we are to do.
I urgently hope to get your response as soon as possible.
Please visit this site for confirmation (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4152806.stm)
Best regards
William Ali
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Anti-fraud resources:
