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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:
- "account in your country or any safer place" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned 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: Charity Odille <c_odille@rediffmail.com>
Reply-To: c_odille@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 15:32:25 +0100 (BST)
Subject: From: Miss.Charity Odille
From: Miss.Charity Odille  Please read with care  Greeting to you
Dear I am Miss. Charity Odille. 21 years old from Abidjan Cote D’Ivoire . I am contacting you to help me to retrieve some money I inherited from my late father. l am looking for a business partner who will help me to claim this fund out from the security company.  Sum of 3.5 000.000 Three million five hundred thousand USD that I inherited from my late father (Mr.Odille Smith) l want you to help me  to retrieve this fund and transfer it to your account in your country or any safer place as you will be the beneficiary and recipient of the fund.  Please get back to me so that I will give you all the details about the transaction. Waiting to hear from you soon.  Thanks & Best regards, Miss.Charity Odille.
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Anti-fraud resources:
