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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: Keith Olson <test@mekophar.com>
Reply-To: <kmm90000@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:48:42 -0800
Subject: Investment Opportunity
Good Day,
We are an Investment Consultation Firm and are situated in Europe; we specialize in searching for potential
investments for our high net-worth clients worldwide.
Our visualization is based upon securing and safe guarding our client’s interests in order to achieve the maximum
return on their investments.
We have recently received a request from one of our clients based in the USA.They are currently looking for a
profitable project to invest funds into that will generate a substantial profit.
Should this be of interest to you, please do not hesitate to e-mail us your executive summary/business plan.I take this
opportunity to thank you for taking the time to read the contents of this email.
Kind Regards,
Keith Olson
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Anti-fraud resources:
