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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:
- "god fearing " (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Hon Dr. John A King" <tinasampson1976@att.net>
Reply-To: hondrjohn@cooltoad.com
Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 06:29:16 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: ATTENTION: DEAR ONE
ATTENTION
I am Hon Dr John A King, The Chairman United Nations Presidential Task force for Refugees; I am here by passing this information to you that the Members of Parliament is looking for a God fearing person who can be the Ambassador to the African refugees. The meeting was held yesterday in the castle House in OSU. So that you can be the Ambassador to African Refugees.
The duty of the refugees Ambassador is to take care of all the funds donated to the refugees by the United Nations, non governmental organizations and God fearing individual is needed for the benefit of the refugees.
The duty of the Ambassador for the refugees is to take all the contract of food supply, health care services of the refugee’s and Clothing’s, as well as the construction of the two new refugee camp in Volta and Eastern region here in Ghana.
I want you to forward all your details to me so that United Nations can put your name in the registration list officially as An Ambassador representing African refugees. Many
beneficiaries are very much interested for this position but you are chosen as one of the Ambassadors.
I await your response.
Yours faithfully,
Hon Dr. John King.
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Anti-fraud resources:
