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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "money laundering" ("anti-terrorist", "anti-money laundering" or "drug-free" certificates are a common way for criminals in fake lottery scams and other Advance Fee scams to get you to send money to them. There are no such certificates in the real banking world. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "TOBO" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <toboj3@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 23:58:07 -0600
Subject: HELLO.....................
Dear sir/Madam
My name is James tobo, am representing Mohammed abacha , the first of the former Nigerian president arrested for money laundering and now discharged and acquitted , am contacting you because there are some funds he deposited in an undisclosed storage company he intends to use for investment .please you can confirm by checking on this website
1)http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/fg-why-we-withdrew-charges-against-mohammed-abacha/182016/
2) http://www.punchng.com/news/us-takes-control-of-480m-abacha-loot/
Please let me know your interest of investing this money so that i can give you full details.
James Tobo
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Anti-fraud resources:
