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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: "IAN REED" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <prof.ianreed@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 23 May 2017 01:34:19 +0300
Subject: Kindly Get Back To Me
Dear Sir
It is a pleasure to make you acquaintance and I look forward to your
cooperation and collaboration.
I am representing an investor with the mandate to help find a dependable
international trustee to channel the investment fund of USD $ 15 million
into 5 years profitable project or Equity that will target a reasonable
return on investment (ROI) With a strong plan to compensate your assistance.
Due to his political position and situation he would not want to participate
in any part of this transaction until it's successfully completed.
This plan will also give you full authority to handle the investment. 10%
from the total investment amount has been allocated for compensation.
kindly let me know if you are interested to proceed and what area of
investment you would recommend.
Thank you as I await your swift action a d response.
regards,
Ian.
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Anti-fraud resources:
