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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 sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "% commission" (Beware of any scheme that involves depositing checks or money orders or receiving wire transfers in your bank account and then wiring a portion of the funds somewhere, for a percentage of 5-15% of the total. Such offers are *always* fraudulent and you will be liable for the entire amount when the checks, money orders or wire transfers turn out to be fraudulent. Any money already forwarded comes out of *your* pocket then. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +22557776445 (Cote d'Ivoire, probably a prepaid mobile phone)
Fraud email example:
From: CHIEF EDWIN KOJO <wwbqw553@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: CHIEF EDWIN KOJO <chiefedwinkojo1995@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2014 23:57:52 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Dear Sir/Madam
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are local gold miners here in the sub region of Cote D'ivoire(Ivory Coast) in west Africa.
We are looking for serious buyers that are willing to assist us in the Exportation of our gold to foreign countries.
We have huge quantities of gold bars for sale at a considerable price of $22,500 per kilo which is below world market price.
We will be responsible for the government tax,custom duty fee and 50% of the shipping cost and buyer will only complete the remaining 50% shipping cost for the assistant he will render us in shipping the gold to his refinery and after final assay of the gold then buyer will deduct the 50% shipping cost he pays from the total value of the gold and wire the remaining sum direct to our nominated bank account. We do not accept any bank instrument, we only accept bank to bank wire transfer.
Our procedure is CIF but buyer will only render us a little assistant by raising 50% of the shipping cost which he will pay it direct to the shipping company bank account that will ship the gold direct to his refinery and we the sellers will pay Government tax and custom duty fee plus the remaining 50% shipping cost.
So if you are not a direct buyer but can get a buyer for us then we will pay you 7% commission per kilo for the buyer you will bring to us. And we also welcome interested buyers for a joint venture in our mining sector here.
We look forward to your response as soon as possible.
Thanks,
Best regards,
Chief Edwin Kojo.
Tel:+225 57776445
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