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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. Fatima Fadwa" <aminatuwatara@gmail.com>
Reply-To: fadwafatima2013@yahoo.com.ph
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:53:24 +0100
Subject: From Mrs. Fadwa Fatima / DONATION
Beloved,
My name is Fadwa Fatima of Malian origin, a muslim convert, and resident in
Ivory Coast for now. I would like to entrust to you the richness of my late
husband (three million five hundred thousand dollars ($ 3.500.000.00) to
your structure or organisation to carry out charity works in your country
and also help my only child to migrate to your country for studies. This is
because of my critical health condition and other circumstances that i will
explain later. I hope to read from you soonest as to give you more detail,
if you are ready to handle the money for me and my son.
N/B:JE PEUT VOUS EXPLIQUER LE CONTENU DE CE MESSAGE EN FRANÇAIS, SI VOUS NE
COMPRENEZ PAS TRES BIEN LE MESSAGE EN ANGLAIS
Your sister
Mrs. Fadwa Fatima
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Anti-fraud resources:
