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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- s-regele123@mail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Silvester Regele." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <s-regele123@mail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2012 20:41:26 +0200
Subject: business proposal
Dear Sir,
My name is Silvester Regele an officer in HSBC bank in UK ; i have a mutual beneficial business proposal and i require your help. The transaction is 100% risk free as long as you follow every instructions.
It involves a huge sum which i would release to you as the beneficiary, i have all necessary details and it is not a problem for me to release it in your name.
If you are interested get back to me by email: s-regele123@mail.com so that i can instruct you on how to proceed with this transaction.
Thanks for your time and understanding.
Regards,
Mr. Silvester Regele.
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Anti-fraud resources:
