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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.
Fraud email example:
From: Simbi <mrs.yonghongwan@yahoo.com.hk>
Reply-To: susan01@w.cn
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:40:13 -0800
Subject: Hi
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Hello My Dear
How are you doing I hope fine I am Simbi i just want to let you know
that i visited your page on my research after reading your profile i
decided to contact you by email as i have contacted with you before but
no respond at all I am still waiting for your respond to my email to you
on your reply I will send you more detail about me and also my complete
profile again and the reason of contacting with you it might interest
you to know me.
Please do try to reply to me urgently I will be looking forward to read
from you soonest thank you and may almighty God be with you always Amen
You’re sincerely
Miss Simbi Titu
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Anti-fraud resources:
