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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: "Dr.Nelson Sanogo" <dr.nelsanogo@ig.com.br>
Reply-To: dr.nelsanogo@yahoo.fr
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 14:08:45 +0000
Subject: URGENT-DEAL
Dear Partner,
Please handle this message privately serious even if we have not meet
in person before. My name is Dr. Nelson Sanogo. I am working with Head
Operations Section of my bank, Burkina Faso. I discovered a file with
US$5.3m overdue unclaimed funds, belonging to a foreign contractor who
died without a wife or child.So the funds remains unclaimed till now
as a result of none existing successor. I reach you for the deal
because one of your names look alike with the name of the holder. If
you are ready to put trust forward,lets execute the deal and share the
funds amicably. Urgent reply needed from you.
Regards,
Dr. Nelson Sanogo
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Anti-fraud resources:
