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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:
- "deadline" (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.
- alfred.goring@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Alfred Goring <alfredgoring@gmail.com>
Reply-To: alfred.goring@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 19:34:35 -0400
Subject: inquiry interested in your product
Hello Sir/Ma,
My name is Alfred and I am sales/marketing manager with Spec-Casting
Enterprise Co. Ltd. we want to place urgent order from your company. We
always provide the best of all production to our customers and to enable
good sales, we always buy in large quantity. our customers require new
products which we came across on Global Trade Forum and we understand that
your company can provide us with the required item. We would like you to
furnish us with your latest product. Get back to us so we could know if
you can possibly supply and meet our deadline of a month interval. We
would like to know your terms of purchase, method of delivery/F.O.B. We
would also like to know what will be the discount range as we would be
buying in large.
Please reply to my e-mail address,, alfred.goring@gmail.com
Have a wonderful day.
Regards
Marketing manager
Alfred
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Anti-fraud resources:
