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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:
- "contact me immediately" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "U.S JBB IRAQ" <okit@ona.att.ne.jp>
Reply-To: dr.cafranklin@terra.com
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:06:34 +0900
Subject: Hello..
Hi,
Would you mind if we got correspond? I am contacting you on behalf of MAJOR GENERAL CRAIG A. FRANKLIN; My name is Ms. Liliana R. Tavera (Sgt) office coordinator of the 332nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron {Joint Base Balad, Iraq}.
I was directed to contact you after a closer look on your profile and personality, MAJOR GENERAL CRAIG A. FRANKLIN will be honoured to secure a mutual financial business with you or any trustful person/s that you can recommend outside our United States military and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) surveillance.
Please kindly contact me immediately with your response including (1.) Your Full Names & Address
(2.) Tel & Fax numbers
(3.) Your most confidential email address; and we’ll get back to you with our proposal.
In waiting of your response...
Sgt. Liliana Tavera {Ms}
Baghdad, Iraq
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Anti-fraud resources:
