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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:
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: joykruger88@yahoo.com
Reply-To: joykruger555@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 13:02:18 +0800
Subject: MESSAGE FROM MISS JOY ON INVESTMENT.
Good Day,
I am miss Joy Kruger from South Africa and I am contacting you because I need
your help in management of some amount that my father left for me before he died.
My father was a very rich cocoa/timber farmer but was poisoned by his business
colleagues and they are now after me so i had to escape my way into Republic
of Benin.
This money (US$2.5 Million) was deposited in a security and finance company in
Cotonou Benin some years ago by my father and he made me the sole beneficiary
. I am now asking you to stand on my behalf to claim the deposit from the
security company and assist me on investing it as well in your country. I have
made up my mind to offer you 25% of the total money and also map out 5% for
any expensive that will be made during the transaction while the remaining
will go into a productive investment.
Joy
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Anti-fraud resources:
