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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found 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: "Mubarak" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ali.mrk1@sify.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:30:56 +0400
Subject: Urgent Need
Dear Friend
I am Mr Ali from Egypt, I have contacted you for your help in securing my fund in your country true investment
of any kind as the government is cracking dawn my asset due to the current political instability in our country.
I am working with the government finance ministry. I deposited some fund with a financial firm and I need your
assistance to retrieve the fund as my partner from the financial firm until the political problems is stabilize,
we can invest the fund as partners if you will be interested, kindly contact me for more details on how we
can proceed further.
Regards
Mr Ali Mubarak.
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Anti-fraud resources:
