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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: AL-QADDAFI Muammar <generalattor.swit.frankerick@gmail.com>
Reply-To: al.qaddafmuammar@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2021 14:39:49 +0200
Subject: dear friend
--
My Name is AL-QADDAFI Muammar from Libya, I'm 22 years old and am presently
in St. Christopher's Parish refugee camp in Burkina Faso under the United
Nations High commission for refugees. I lost my parents in the recent war
in Libya, right now am in Burkina Faso, I am in danger please save my life,
I am in great need of your help in transferring my late father’s deposited
fund the sum of US10.5 MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLAR) in a bank in
Ouagadougou the capital city of Burkina Faso in West Africa.
The deposited money was from the sale of the company shares, death benefits
payment and entitlements of my deceased father by his company. I have
every necessary document for the fund; I seek an honest foreigner who will
stand as the foreign partner to my father and beneficiary of the fund. I
just need this fund to be transferred to your bank account so that I will
come over to your country and complete my education as you know that my
country has been in deep crisis due to the war. And I cannot go back there
again because I have nobody; all of my families were killed in the war.
I need your urgent response to know if you will be able to assist me to
receive my inheritance fund into your bank account
Muammar
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Anti-fraud resources:
