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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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- olivedaveuk@yahoo.com (Yahoo; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Olive Davids" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <olivedaveuk@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 13:03:08 -0500
Subject: Business Offer
Hello Sir,
Please note that i make this proposal based on my regards for your credibility and company profile i saw online. I work with the National Petroleum Agency of Sao Tome & Principe in the capacity of the Dep. Director, Projects Supervisory department. My intent of contacting you is based on an offer on ground which involves the re-assignment of a 5 year Product Marketing License. I facilitated the issuance of this license to a company that is no longer operational because of the unavailability of the owner. The license is therefore dormant and inactive.
I am hoping that you (your company) and I could get into a mutual business relationship of which we shall get this license re-assigned to your company and run the license through its duration.
This license has a sales capacity of 2 Million barrels of crude oil/month. The NPA shall pay us commission on every barrel of crude oil sold by our license depending on the negotiations we are able to secure with end buyers. This license will give us a sales mandate status to the National Petroleum Agency. Let me put it plainly, we shall be playing the role of sales rep to the National Petroleum Agency.
If we are to work together on this venture, i will ensure that your company gets the license.. We shall enter into a written agreement which shall bind our partnership. We shall be working on a 50:50 sharing basis. That's the fairest I can do.
I await your response.
Olive Davids
NB:For my immediate attention, send email to :olivedaveuk@yahoo.com
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