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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 "dying widow" scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Mrs Abeedah Ahmed <abbs_ahmed_01@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: Mrs Abeedah Ahmed <abeedah.ahmed@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 19:29:10 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Asalaam Alaikum
Asalaam Alaikum
I am Mrs Abeedah Ahmed from switzerland I am married to Late Mr.Mustafa Ahmed who is a wealthy business man here in London uk we were married for 14 years with out a child before he died after a brief illness
Before his surden death we where devoted muslim When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of three Million uk pounds (£3.000.000.00) in one of the prime bank here in london Presently this money is still with the Bank,
and i am very sick from cancer and fibroid that i may not last till the next two months according to my doctor so i decided to donate this money to a muslim individual who will use it to work for Allah, ophans and widow and maintenance of mosque,
and i have choosen you after going through your profile.
I want this money to be as i have said since i do not have any child to inherit it and my late husband relatives are all Non-belivers and i don't want our hard earn money to be used by unbelivers
the reason for taking this bold decision. I know that after death I will be with Allah the most holy and the most merciful as soon as i read from you i will give you more details on how to achive it,
i need your urgent respone as i dont know what tomorrow will result
Your Sister
Mrs Abeedah Ahmed.
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Anti-fraud resources: