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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: "George Miguel" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <geo.miguel55@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 21:17:31 -0000
Subject: Read and respond to this message.
Hello,
How are you doing today?
Please do forgive me for invading your privacy through this medium. Nevertheless, I desire to convey a very important message which in the long run will be conjointly beneficial to us.
This entails a business dealing which I will make known to you the full details in my next mail upon your response and readiness to work with me. Please do take this mail in earnest.
Please excuse my unconventional mode of approach which was borne out of desperation. Hopefully I will hear from you.
Thank you,
George Miguel.
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Anti-fraud resources:
