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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Nana Kwasi Boadi" <nanakwasi.boadi@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: nana.kwasiboadi@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 07:51:12 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: INVEST FOR GOLD
Dear Sir/Madam,
Please pardon me for not having the liberty of knowing your mindset before
writing you this letter without any formal introduction, I am Nana Kwasi
Boadi II Chief of Tarkwa Breman in Ghana West Africa a miniature community
that is blessed with Gold as I write to you, we the family of Boadi in
Tarkwa rural community in Ghana have presently 651kg of Alluvial Gold Dust
and 435kg of Gold Bars that we want to dispose/sell to enable the purchase
of the gold mining equipment that our community needs at the moment to
increase our mine. Please if interested kindly write back.
With Much Regards
Nana Kwasi Boadi II
(Chief of Tarkwa Breman)
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Anti-fraud resources:
