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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- elisabeth_frederique@europe.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Elisabeth Frederique" (may be fake)
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2016 08:58:36 -0800
Subject: Humanitarian Work
Hello,
Good day and Happy New Year to you and your family,
I am an aging widow of 78 years old suffering from long time illness. I inherited the sum of Sixteen Million Two Hundred and Seventy Thousand Dollars from my late husband and I need an honest, sincere and dedicated Individual or corporate organizations that will use the fund for humanitarian services in order to fulfil the wishes of my late husband, I found your email address from the Human resources data base and decided to contact you.
Please if you would be able to use the funds for the work of humanity as I have stated here kindly reply back through my Private email: Elisabeth_Frederique@europe.com for further instruction.
Regards,
Elisabeth.
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Anti-fraud resources:
