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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:
- The following fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "international court of justice" (not involved with lotteries)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million 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)
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Rachael C. Barksdale" <kofi2074kwame@live.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 00:13:39 -0400
Subject: INFO
Dear Sir/ Madam,
Permit me to introduce myself, I am KOFI KWAME a consultant with
a gold refinery in Ghana on short visit to Ghana the sitting
president of SUDAN REPUBLIC Commissioned me to look out for
investment manager for him.
The idea is to manage his vast estate across the globe, the
stern from the fact that the (ICJ) international court of
justice have issued a warrant of arrest on him, he currently has
over 250million dollars in Europe and large quantity of Gold
as the investment manger you are entitled to 30% of 6the total
funds.
The reason is that he can not come out openly to lay claims to
this funds because of the present warrant of arrest by the ICJ.
Please notify me of your interest through this email
address;kwame101@outlook.com
The transaction is 100% risk free as all document neccessary to
put the transaction through are all in place.
Best Regards
Kwame Kofi
________________________________________________________________
Sent via the WebMail system at gcronline.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
