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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "CAPT.SMITH MORGAN" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <capt.smithmorgan@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 20:03:14 -0700
Subject: Please I Need Your Help
I am Capt.Smith Morgan with the United Nations troop in Afghanistan, on war against terrorism. I have an urgent proposition involving an investment initiative in your country’s economy to discuss with you, it will be of mutual benefit for both of us and I believe you can handle it once we have a common understanding and mutual cooperation in the execution of the modalities. Like I said above, I work with US Air Defense Artillery Company Task Force here. Should you be interested, please email back to me.
And I must assure you that this transaction is 100% risk free and you have nothing to fear about as you are under immunity coverage.
Hence you are interested I will give directives on exactly how the deal could be accomplished accurately.Get back to me with your full name and address.
thanks alot
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Anti-fraud resources:
