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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "FROM MR. SOTHORN DARA" <sothorn_dara@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: <mr.sothorndara@live.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 10:54:46 +0700
Subject: FROM MR. SOTHORN DARA
I am Mr. Sothorn Dara, an account officer to Mr. D. G. "who share the same last name as yours. My client was a business man resident here in Cambodia who hailed from your country, he died last year and since then I have made several inquiries to locate any of my clients extended relatives this has also proved unsuccessful.
In view of this, am seeking your cooperation and understanding to stand you as the deceased next of kin to enable us claim the inheritance before the period given by the bank elapse. All I require is your honest co-operation and I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.
At the end of the transfer you shall have 40% of the total amount and i know that if we follow up this transaction diligently it would be completed within 14 working days. Do not fail to get back to me as soon as you have receive this mail right now to enable us discuss further, with your Info as follows: Full Name......... Address........ Age......... Sex............. Occupation.......
Telephone Number......
Respectfully,
Mr. Dara
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Anti-fraud resources:
