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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 friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- 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.
- claimsunit@dr.com (Dr; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: MR DESMOND RUPART <mr.marvinkitwlls@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: claimsunit@dr.com
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:24:14 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: =?utf-8?B?TVkgREVBUiBGUklFTkQgQ0FOIEkgVFJVU1QgWU9VID/igI8=?=
 Dear friend,
I am in need of your assistance. My name is Desmond Rupart. I am in the Medical military unit here in Ba'qubah in Iraq ; I have $4.5 Million US dollars that I successfully moved out of the country. I need a good partner someone I can trust. It is oil business money we did with Iraqi citizen's worth of 42 million US dollars,
The 4.5 million stated is my share of the business and its legal.
I have made arrangements on how the funds will be moved out of Iraq as a family treasure. The most important thing is how I can trust you with this fund,Once the funds get to your country?.
 I want you to take 30% out and keep my own 70%. Your own part of this deal is to find a safe place where the funds can be kept in a safe bank account pending when I will come over to meet with you.
I will do my best to make sure that the money gets to your country without any problem. Get back to me so that we can put heads together to perfect the whole arrangement on the fund release.
You can reply me on this Email: claimsunit@dr.com
Waiting to get your positive response on this subject matter.
Your's Truely,
Desmond Rupart
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