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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: "MR.ELVIS KUAME" <elviskuame2013@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: elvismensah@o2.pl
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:50:32 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: From Mr.Mensah,
Dear Sir,
Hope all is well with you and family. May I use
this little opportunity to inform you that we are into small scale
Gold/Diamond mining in Ghana West Africa. We also have other African
natural minerals for sales. We have for sale at the moment gold with the
following descriptions:
Product : Gold.
Quantity : 400kgs.
Quality : 22carat and better.
Purity : 94% and better.
Price : $37,000USD Per kilogram.
We
also have Raw Diamond for sale at very good prices. We are selling this
product urgently as we wish to use the money in purchasing big mining
equipments in order to get into a large scale business and compete with
big companies in the West African mining industry. We may negotiate a
good sales/purchase mode of understanding that will be safe and
secured for both buyers and seller as we wish to build long lasting
business relationships with you.
Regards,
Mr.Elvis Mensah.
(Sales/Public Relation Mandate)
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Anti-fraud resources:
