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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: Marina Garna <michelle02thomas@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Marina Garna <marinagarna@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2017 17:24:01 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Dearest one, This message might come to you as a surprise but please be rest assured that it is all for good, meanwhile, I prayed before contacting you and please do not see my mail as embarrassment as we do not know each other before. For proper introductions my full names are Miss Marina Garna, only daughter of late Mr. and Mrs. BUDHI SUKMA GARNA, my late father was the Quality Control Supervisor at Tullow Oil PLC in Ivory Coast. We are a native of BANDUNG in INDONESIA. But my father married my mother
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Anti-fraud resources: