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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: "Philip Makunta" <tony50201brown@att.net>
Reply-To: <phil.george57@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:32:14 +0100
Subject: GOOD DAY
FULL CORPORATE OFFER
Royal Continental Ghana Limited is a mining company Registered in the Republic of Ghana and Export Alluvial Gold Dust to interested clients all over the world. Our concession is located at Tarkwa, to be precise in the Western Region of Ghana. Please find below the companys full corporate offer (FCO) We Mega Term Limited offer with full legal responsibility and Penalty of perjury declare the following GOLD DUST free and Encumbered with full authority, ready, willing and able to sell under the Following terms and conditions.
COMMODITY
ALLUVIAL GOLD DUST
QUANTITY
. 298 KILOGRAMS
QUALITY
23 CARAT plus
PURITY
96%
PRICE
.. $33,100 PER KILO
We hope the above procedure will meet your condition of purchase.
Thanks with regards.
Yours faithfully,
George P. Makunta
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