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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: "PATRICK WILLIAMS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sfarmycsm@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2018 13:26:25 +0100
Subject: Dear trust worthy individual
Greetings,
I know you will be surprised to get this my email. Apart from being surprised you may be hesitant to reply based on what is happening in the world of the internet. One has to be very careful due to the amount of scammers that are out there looking to take advantage of innocent citizens. However, I am not one of these people. My name is Capt. Patrick Williams and I was a member of the US ARMY medical team deployed to Iraq and then later transferred to Afghanistan.
I am looking for a trust worthy individual who will assist me in receiving some funds for me. I am requesting this individual to hold onto the cash until I arrive safely back to retrieve them.
As soon as I hear back I will work out the finer details.
Best Regards
Captain Patrick Williams
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Anti-fraud resources:
