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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 message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Patrick Williams <patickwill04@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 4 May 2015 22:53:44 +0100
Subject: Greetings
Dear,
Greetings to you. I wish you everlasting joy, peace and
happiness. My name is Patrick Williams after the death of my late father
my mother seriously suffering from Cancer after two years she death. I
contact you based on the content of my late father's WILL. The estate of
my late father in Europe is what I want to discuss with you; I know you
will be of great assistance and the benefits that follows.
I
want to invest the sum of $59.5M in your country which my father left
behind, I need a trusted reliable person to handle this for me and my
family which my spirit has accepted you. Please do not betray this
trust. the reason I contacted is based on your experience in business
and investment which I know you will hold the funds in trust. I really
find it hard to communicate this to you based on what goes on on the
internet, we have not met before which makes it more difficult to trust
and what is required here is total trust, from your side and from my
side. But my spirit is at rest sharing this with you.
I need your
assistance urgently as my late father's brothers are after this and I
need to secure it. I will give you details immediately I get your
response.
Thanks and God bless
Patrick Williams
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Anti-fraud resources:
