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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 sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "SGT.John Donald" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <rev.farahdjama@jpmchaseservice.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 17:48:15 +0100
Subject: OPEN IMMEDAITELY
Dear Sir/Madam,
All we need is trust and honesty and we shall achieve our goal.I know you would be surprised to read from someone relatively unknown to you before. My name is SGT.John Donald,a member of the U.S. ARMY
I would like to share some highly personal classified information about my personal experience and role which I played in the pursuit of my career serving under the U.S 1st Armored which was at the fore-front of the war in Iraq.Though, I would like to hold back certain information for security reasons for now until you have find the time to visit the BBC websites
stated below to enable you have insight as to what I'm intending to sharewith you, believing that it would be of your desired interest oneway or theother.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm
I will implore you to get back to me after you have visited the above link to enable us discuss in details. I must say that I'm very uncomfortable sending this message to you without knowing truly if you would misconstrue the importance and decides to go public.Send me a mail confirming you have visited the site and that you understand my intentions? I will await your thoughts.
Thanks,
Best Regards
SGT.John Donald
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Anti-fraud resources:
