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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- 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.
- jbtrucks@engineer.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Tan Joseph" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <joseph.tan@yahoo.cn>
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 16:06:33 +0800
Subject: Contract Projectmmmm
Dear Friend,
I hope My mail meet you well, I have transaction to hold with you ($8.6m)The bank is ready to dispatch it pending on when i present beneficiary; If you can help me in this transaction" i will compensate you with 30% of the total
amount and you will also get benefit from the investment" If there is any kind of agreement that you would like us to have , let me know so that i can start
working on for i would like this transaction to be concluded as quick as possible.
More details will be send to you when i got your responds..
Thanks and best regards
Joseph I. Tan
TEL: +13477-700-112
FAX: +1888-769-5640
Email: jbtrucks@engineer.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
