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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 Grace Pat <gracepatdonation01@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Mrs Grace Pat <grace.pat@rediffmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2015 01:53:27 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Greetings to you .My name is Mrs.Grace Pat from Poland suffering from Cancer. I am presently in the hospital in Cote d'ivoire. I am writing you this letter because I want you to stand as beneficiary to the sum of $3 Million United states dollars only which my late husband deposited in a security finance house. My wish is to use this fund for the Less privilaged people, orphanages, widows and propagating the word of God.I made this decision because I do not have any child that will inherite this fund and I
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Anti-fraud resources:
