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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "HELP DESK" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <oakbaba8@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Feb 2010 19:13:58 +0100
Subject: RE:explain
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgcolor=#FFFFFF leftmargin=5 topmargin=5 rightmargin=5 bottommargin=5>
<FONT size=2 color=#000000 face="Arial">
<DIV>
Dear Enquirer,</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
<FONT color=#000000>Oakland Media Group is an online media portal offering insight into african and </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<FONT color=#000000> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
western media works as well as offering free online <A href="http://www.oaklandmediagroup.org/aka.html"><FONT color=#0000FF><U>applications</U></FONT></A><A href="http://www.oaklandmediagroup.org/aka.html"><FONT color=#0000FF><U> </U></FONT></A>and <A href="http://www.oaklandmediagroup.org/aka.html"><FONT color=#0000FF><U>downloads</U></FONT></A><A href="http://www.oaklandmediagroup.org/aka.html"><FONT color=#0000FF><U> </U></FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
Sincerely,</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
John Lu</DIV>
<DIV>
Developement Manager</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
Company software</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
Web: http://www.oaklandmediagroup.org/aka.html</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
This is an automatic response to your email.</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
Thank you for your recent correspondence with the Enquiry Unit at the downloads center.</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
Due to the high volume of enquiries we are receiving via e-mail there may be a short delay in receiving a response. If the matter is urgent please do not hesitate to call us on our free phone number, 0800 005 006 or +44 20 8331 8590 from Monday to Friday </DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
from 9am to 5.30pm. </DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
The Enquiries team endeavour to reply to you as quickly as possible. You should expect a response within 2 working days.</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
In the meantime if you would like to refer to our online ADS for further course information. Please visit our website at:</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
www.oaklandmediagroup.org/</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
If you have requested information and have provided your FULL postal address, this will be sent out to you shortly.</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
Enquiry Unit Team</DIV>
<DIV>
</DIV>
<DIV>
oaklandmediagroup</DIV>
</FONT>
</BODY></HTML>
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Anti-fraud resources:
