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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:
- "huge amount of money" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "million dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- 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.
- generalstuart12@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: mattdonald68@yahoo.com
Reply-To: generalstuart12@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 14:13:47 +0000
Subject: Benefiting bussiness deal
Hello,sorry to intrude into your privacy and i hope this message doesn't look scary or boring to you I'm General James stuart from United State Army currently in Afghanistan for peace keeping mission. i know we have not met before or even know each other from anyway, but every good deal need a risk, please my friend, there is a business i will love to strike a deal with you because every delay with this business will cause a lot of lost to me. some years ago i deposited some family valuable that contain some medal of Gold and silver and also an Estate document including $50.4million dollars which was deposited liner Security Company in Dubai which i also deposited a huge amount of money as the retail fee to keep the parcel safe till my return from my mission in Afghanistan, but things didn't happen the way it was planed so i have to stay longer than i thought right now i got a message from the company that i have to come for the claim of my parcel which i can't bring down here in Afghanistan so i want to send the parcel down to you in your country so you will help me claim and stand as the beneficiary of my parcel, i will rate you on any percentage that be feat you if you can do this for me.. I will hope to hear from you if you are interested on this deal please make a necessary and urgent reply to this Email so we can strike a deal (generalstuart12@gmail.com) Thank you.
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