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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- williams.ekofa@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: EkofaGH <EkofaGH@ekofaGH.onmicrosoft.com>
Reply-To: <williams.ekofa@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2014 20:35:55 +0100
Subject: SUPPLY ENQUIRY
Attention: Sir/Madam
Please can you furnish me in full details about the standard of your
products, I will appreciate it more if you can give me with detail
specification.
I am working as an accredited commission agent and I am looking for
supplier whose products is of good quality as your products are among
the need items which will be purchase in a large quantities.
You can reach me for business opportunities for the supply of your
products.
Kind Regards,
Mr. Williams Nana Ekofa
(Director/CEO)
Ekofa Company GH Limited
P.O.Box Os 556 Osu
Accra, Ghana
williams.ekofa@gmail.com
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Anti-fraud resources: