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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "BRAD LAWSON" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bradlawson@goldenpower.net>
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2013 15:35:36 -0000
Subject: URGENT REPLY
Good day,
I am Brad Lawson a financial consultant with GOLDEN POWER LTD; a business developer, stock broking
and portfolio Management Company based in the United Kingdom. I went through your profile and I will like
to develop a business relationship with you, one of the clients in my portfolio will be interested in
investing a six figure.
The reason why we have contacted you is because the investor/my client is specially interested to invest
in your country and we were directed to contact you, I will like to keep the detail short for now. If you are
interested, kindly get back to me.
Do not forget to include your direct cell phone number and the best time to contact you; I will ring you to
discuss the modality and other details once I get a reply from you.
I am looking forward to your response and working with you on this Investment proposal.
Yours Faithfully
BRAD LAWSON
bradlawson@goldenpower.net
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Anti-fraud resources:
