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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.
- prospcomltd@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Prosperoot & Companies Ltd" <agrolincmp@gmail.com>
Reply-To: prospcomltd@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 14:39:59 +0000
Subject: Enquiries
Hi,
How are you?
This is Andrea from Prosperoot & Companies Ltd. Our company has been in the
importation market in Togo for more than 10 years,we are one of the
leading importers of general
merchandise,our company which started as a small scale business enterprice
has today grown to become one of the power house in the importation market
in Togo,Our customers sertisfaction is our priority.
We believe in longterm and mutual and beneficial business relationship.
We have come accross your company through a very reliable source in your
area and we are interested in your product and we will like to enter into a
longterm business relationship with your company,so we will like you to
kindly provide us your product catalogue for our review so we can place
order.
We would appreciate your early reply in advance.
Sincerely
Andrea Eyala
Managing Director
Prosperoot & Companies Ltd.
06 BP 61135 00228LFW Lome
Federal Republic of Togo
Email: prospcomltd@gmail.com
Tel:(00228)96029378
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Anti-fraud resources: