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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:
- "benjaminmiller@foxmail.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: US MARINE <usmarine548@gmail.com>
Reply-To: benjaminmiller@foxmail.com
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 01:26:33 +0100
Subject: I NEED YOUR ATTENTION URGENTLY !!!
Hello,
I hope this email finds you well.
I will be brief here and hope to hear from you soon. I am Sgt. Benjamin
Miller of the United States Army on Active Duty and based in Camp Red
Cloud. I'm stationed in Uijeongbu, South Korea to keep peace around the
Korean Peninsula. I have a business proposal of mutual benefit for you and
it is 100% safe. I will be glad to discuss more of this in my next message,
if you are interested Email me ( benjaminmiller@foxmail.com ) My
Identification will also be sent in due course. Thank you for your time.
Kind Regards,
B. Miller
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Anti-fraud resources:
