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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.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447024055585 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "William wilcox" <william@mail.com>
Reply-To: mr.wwilcox09@live.hk
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:45:10 +0600
Subject:
My name is Mr William Wilcox , I work with the Euro Million Lottery
Company, which i can make you the winner of the Euro Million Lottery of
4,528,000 GBP this month and you will be given me 40% of the winnings if
you are interested please contact me via my secure e-mail:
mr.wwilcox09@live.hk
Best Regards
Mr.William Wilcox
+44 702-405-5585
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This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by Agni Systems, and is
believed to be clean.
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Anti-fraud resources:
