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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: "Ho Choi" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ho.choi@9.cn>
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 11:07:35 +0100
Subject: PRODUCT ENQUIRY
Dear Sir/Madam,
I write to inform you that we are interested in your products, please confirm to us if your company can make provision for the exact products as shown in our purchase page which you can view by clicking our sample product site below.
please Upon confirmation of the products you have available after viewing our samples in the site, provide us with a confirmation on the ones you can supply and the best discount price.
Please let me know the below mentioned information about the production.
1. Minimum Order Quantity
2. Delivery time
3. Payment terms
Ho Choi
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Anti-fraud resources:
