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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Fatima Muhammad <fatimamuhammad244@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Fatima Muhammad <fatimamuhammad2225@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 4 May 2016 06:58:17 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Hello My Dearest
Hello My Dearest
My name is Miss Fatima Muhammad a young medical student, my dearest it is my pleasure to contact you for a business partnership venture which I intend to establish in your country. I would like to go into business partnership with you, Though I have not met with you face to face before but I believe one has to risk confident in succeed sometimes in life. There is this huge amount ($ 2.5, Million Dollars) which my late Father deposited on my name in the suspense account with one Bank before his Death.
My father was a very wealthy oil and gas contractor. He also had extensive investments in real estate and agriculture. My father was poisoned by my uncle to death because of the land dispute he had with them. capitalized on the fact that my father has no male child to inherit his wealth, my mother died when I was only 2 years
old. Now I want you to help me claim the funds from the Bank and transfer it into your account in your country for investment purposes.
My dearest if you can assistance to me, I will be pleased to offer you 40% of the total funds as compensation for your effort / input after the successful transfer of this funds into your nominated account overseas and again we are going to invest money together and share whatever profit we make together as partners, please kindly reply me immediately if you are willing to assist me transfer and invest the money in your country I am waiting for your soonest response before ending of today for more details.
Thank you for your wiliness to help me and God bless you.
Yours Sincerely Miss. Fatima Muhammad
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Anti-fraud resources:
