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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:
- "million united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- 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.
- dr.atta.mensah@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Atta Mensah <attamensahh@yahoo.in>
Reply-To: dr.atta.mensah@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 01:26:34 -0800 (PST)
Subject: PRIVATE LETTER
FROM THE OFFICE OF BRANCH MANAGER
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK
KUMASI BRANCH GHANA. Hello Dear My name is Dr. Atta Mensah, I am the branch manager of the International Commercial Bank Kumasi branch Ghana. I got your information during my search through the Internet. I am 47years of age and married with 3 lovely kids, it may interest you to hear that I am a Man of peace and I don't want problem. I am contacting you because I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($6.750.000.00) million United States Dollars to your bank account within ten (10) banking days. Upon the receipt of your reply,I will give you the full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 45% of the above mentioned sum as your own share while 50% will be for me, and the other 5% will be for the expenses occur in this transaction.This is my private email contact (dr.atta.mensah@gmail.com) I am expecting your urgent response. This is very simple and there is no single risk that will be
involved. My Regards to your familyDr. Atta Mensah.
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Anti-fraud resources:
