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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: "Michael" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <wbuk03@katamail.com>
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 11:42:34 -0700
Subject: Waiting for your urgent reply.
Hello,
I’m Michael a US Army in Syria, I was wounded by bomb explosion during ISIS attack , the Doctor said I will not survive it because of deep injury I sustained. Can I give you my account info to claim my $4.5Million before I die instead of my bank to take over it?
Waiting for your reply before my bank takes it over because my condition is very bad. I will not be happy losing this money to the bank and I will also want you to donate half of this funds to a Charity home.
Michael.
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Anti-fraud resources:
