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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "please indicate your interest" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs.Caroline Desmond" <defensoraseguradolum@promede.com>
Reply-To: carolinedesmond14@gmail.com
Date: 28 Aug 2024 05:00:16 +0200
Subject: Investment Opportunity
Hello there, I hope you receive this message in good spirits. I am Caroline Desmond, an investment broker in South Africa. I work with Metropolitan Asset Wealth Management. I am contacting you privately because one of my high profile clients is interested in investing abroad and has asked me to look for individuals and companies with prospective business ideas that he can invest in. He has an interest in investing a very substantial amount (Eight Figures) abroad. I got your email contact
through an online business directory and I thought I'd contact you to see if you are interested in this opportunity. Do you or your company have new or existing projects that require funding?
If so, please indicate your interest by replying back to this email. Once I get your response, we can go through the details of your projects to determine its viability and also make arrangements for the funding of the said projects.
I have decided to keep this very short for now but feel free to respond if this proposal interests you. Looking forward to your response.
Best Regards,
Mrs.Caroline Desmond
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Anti-fraud resources:
