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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: Miss Toual Edwige <toualied@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Miss Toual Edwige <toualyedwige1989@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2017 17:49:03 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Greeting from Miss Toual Edwige
Good day,
My Name is Miss Toual Edwige I am 23 yrs old girl, Please i need your help to recover my inheritance (USD 2.5M) which my late father deposited in finance firm before his sudden death.
I have all the documents that have been issued to my late father by the bank where this money was deposited for safe keeping, and i am the next of kin to the fund. Please if you are willing to help me, kindly reply me for more details.
I am waiting for your response and any help i could get from you will be highly appreciated.
Thanks God bless you.
Regards,
Miss Toual Edwige
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Anti-fraud resources: