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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.
- 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.
- stanleyam014@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Prof. Stan" <investmentp14@gmail.com>
Reply-To: stanleyam014@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 07:43:47 -0700
Subject: PLEASE INDICATE YOUR DECISION.
Dearest friend,
You are bless in the name of God almighty. I have a concluded
transaction right there in your city and i want you to oversea it
tomorrow because i shall give you the complete details of the
transaction worth. Notice, i initially executed the transaction with
someone from your city who shares same name with you but he died three
days back in a car wreck during his great celebration on our huge
success. I cannot personally distribute the income achieved in our
concluded project because everything was perfectly/peacefully handled
by him as my representative. Honestly you have a lot to gain
over-searing this transaction tomorrow morning considering the great
worth of our concluded project. Please feel free to reply with your
complete personal detail for third-party assignment that will enable
you handle everything.
Prof. Stan
stanleyam014@gmail.com
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Anti-fraud resources: