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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: "Mrs.FATIMA" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hadjia.fatima@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2014 01:10:48 +0100
Subject: I am waiting
Attention: The Director Gen, All my efforts to reach you directly on telephone and discuss with you in details could not work out due to war climate here in Syria. I am Fatima Alhmed the wife to Ibrahim Alhmed the director general Gulf Link oil company who died last week in Damascus Central Hospital after bullet wounds. Before the death of my husband in Damascus Central Hospital he called the attention of me and my son, he disclosed to us that he have some money in a security/financial company oversea,he intended to build refinery. he instructed me to look for an honest trustworthy and reputable person who can help us invest this money oversea until the war in Syria is over. He instructed us not to allow anybody in Syria to be aware of the money and our oversea investment. Because of security reasons.The war in Syria is getting out of hands people are dieying every minute and we have received warning that the government is planning to use strong bomb weapons. I have decided w
ith all my heart to give you 20%
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Anti-fraud resources:
