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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:
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Franklin Jones" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <franklin_jones@outlook.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2013 01:44:47 +0400
Subject: Business Proposal..
Dear Beneficiary,
I am Mr. Franklin Jones, an account officer with Global Bank in Georgia. I am writing you this letter base on the latest development at my bank which I will like to bring to your personal identification.($15million transfer claim) this is legitimate transaction and you will be paid 40% for your assistance. If you are interested please write back for more explanation so that I will be able to send application form to you which you will fill and apply to bank as next of kin to our late customer (Harmanto) who died in tsunami disaster in Indonesia along his family to enable the foreign remittance director start transfer of the fund into your nominated account which you will provide to
Bank. Website... http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/tsunami.disaster/
If you are interested fill this information and send it back to me so that I will send you more details and how you we will start the transaction.
1) your full name...
2) your country...
3) your occupation...
4) your telephone number...
5) your age....
6) your sex...
7) your marital status...
Regards,
Mr. Franklin Jones.
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Anti-fraud resources:
