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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: "Marine Corps." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <wueios109@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2021 11:42:46 +0100
Subject: Hey!!
Hi,
I am a USMC on a special redeployment. I am looking for a good looking and intelligent person for a relationship. Or a person who can accept to take custody of an amount being proceed of a raid we carried out here. If you are interested mail me back with your picture. All communication must be through an end-to-end encrypted means. It is important that you must have WhatsApp for easy communication. And I assure you that your privacy will be protected too.
I got your email contact through an opt-in consumer directory.
I expect your response.
A Sgt. USA
Marine Corps.
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Anti-fraud resources:
