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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 friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Joseph Zaron" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sgegroupss@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2014 22:22:40 -0800
Subject: RE: CAN YOU RECEIVE PAYMENT ON MY BEHALF
Dear Friend,
My Name is DR. Joseph Zaron; I am the Account Officer of YD YACHTS BROKERAGE in the United Kingdom.
I sell Yachts to clients in U.S.A, Canada European and other Countries. I have lot of client who will be paying large amounts by bank to bank transfers to account.
So we are going to need Individual Retirement Account (IRA) which is 401(k) account Which is more secure and the IRS will never question any amount of money coming in or going out of the account.
I need a trustworthy representative in the United States Canada or Europ who owns Individual Retirement account and I will offer you 10% of any of my payment that passed through your Retirement account.. You will never invest any money during the course of this transaction and this transaction is 100% legal. The amount of money depends on the volume of Yachts sold which ranges from $299,999 and above depending on the yacht and also of your account limit.
Below are the information my client requested: -
My client said that you have to comply with the enabling insurance policy standard and the funds will be wired from their west coast affiliates of the United States or East Coast Transaction, I will give you more details and attach a form for you to fill out are return as soon as I hear from you.
I want to assure you that this is a legal business, and it's 100% risk free.
Best Regards,
DR. Joseph Zaron
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Anti-fraud resources:
