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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.Teresa Stang<info@link.net>
Reply-To: mrs.teresastang@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 12:16:36 -0500
Subject: Please reply urgently
Hello, May the peace of God be with you and your family. I know it will be =
a great surprise reading from me today but consider this a divine intervent=
ion from the almighty. My name is Mrs. Teresa Stang, a widow from Oklahoma,=
United States of America and am writing you from my sickbed because i have=
been fighting cancer and the doctors says i have only few weeks left. I wa=
nt to entrust my money $4.5 million USD to your care for charity purposes t=
o help the less privileged so reply to my private email ( mrs.teresastang@g=
mail.com ) for more information as I'm not always online and my late husban=
d's brother wants me dead so that he will claim all my late husband and i w=
orked for. I will tell you more about myself and what you need to do with t=
he money once your receive it. Please write me soon as my health is pretty =
bad now and my doctor says i will be moved to the intensive care unit anyti=
me soon. Have a blessed day and please do pray for me. God bless you. Mrs. =
Teresa Stang.
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Anti-fraud resources:
