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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: "Rajab" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <naheenes@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2018 09:08:16 -0000
Subject: Subject- Hospital
Good morning
This message is from the hospital, so it is very urgent to respond immediately. I am an elderly widow - 68 years that I suffer from a cancer disease for many years to the extent that my last medical report shows that just will live for months on this earth. I am having known my condition I decided to give the money I inherited from my late husband so that you can use to help the needy in your land. In addition, the brothers of my late husband have looted all the property and wealth since my illness worsened, except the fund in the bank that I have refused to disclose them.
Greetings
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Anti-fraud resources:
