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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:
- "mohamade-willson@live.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: "mohamade willson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mohamade-willson@live.com>
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:47:23 +0100
Subject: Good day
Good day
The purpose of this communication is to solicit your Assistance for the investment of the sum of US$15.5 million plus 389kg under the trust and management of you or your company.
The treasure is currently in a safe-keeping vault outside my country and we are able to make treasure
available to you or your company within a period of days depending on your readiness and corporation.
We shall be grateful if you can send to us a investment proposal for our funds and we wish to know how much we can get for the gold par kilo.. We can discuss further details on receiving your response to this proposal. An urgent favourable response will highly be appreciated.
Thanks yours sincerely
mohamade willson
reply to mohamade-willson@live.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
