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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: "Engr. Adam" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mcavali65@engineer.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2016 02:46:59 +0200
Subject: Need Your Help!
I am Eng. Mario Cavali I am contacting you because I have an investment
proposal that I think may be of interest to you. I represent the interest of
my brother in-law who is a former minister in the Syrian Government. As you
probably know, there is a lot of crisis going on currently in Syria and my
brother in-law has fallen out with the ruling Junta and he is currently
under house arrest or killed because he has been incommunicado for the few
weeks. While I am sure that he has not done anything wrong other than
publicly opposing the decision of the Government since the beginning of this
stupid war for using weapons of mass destruction on our own people and
killing innocent people senselessly.
Anyway, as a result of this war, he has planned for trouble ahead and has
made arrangement to secure his family's future in case the unexpected
happens. He has asked me to help him find a reputable foreigner who can help
him accommodate and invest a large sum of money privately. Hence my reason
for contacting you.
We need your help to accommodate and lodge the funds in the banking system
in your country. We will handle the logistics involved in the movement of
the funds to you. Please note that the entire business will be executed in a
legal way. My brother in-law has promised to compensate you handsomely for
your role if you agree to help in this business. He would also like for you
to help invest the funds in a profitable business in your country. He has
also instructed me that he wants this to be done discretely and he would
want to keep his identification confidential. I will be acting as his eyes
and ears during the course of this transaction.
I have decided to keep this short for now. If this proposal interests you,
please kindly respond ASAP so I can give you more details and we can also
discuss your compensation.
Regards.
Mario Cavali
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