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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: "PK International" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <cocacola.award@qq.com>
Date: Fri, 10 May 2013 16:08:27 -0400
Subject: You have been Selected
You'Re A Winner,
Pin Code COKE882
Winning # 09 34 41 18 42 BONUS 33
Ref UK/CGA/4512/445
Special Notification to you:
Your email account has won 550,000.00 GBP in the Coca-Cola Online Season
Winners International Award in which e-mail addresses are picked randomly
by computerised balloting powered by the Internet, this is a Life-changing
opportunity for you in the 2013 Coca-Cola Season Anniversary.
For claims confirmation please contact Greg Anderson for More information
and claims instructions by replying this email.
Congratulations.
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Anti-fraud resources:
