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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:
- "million united state 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)
- "confidential business" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- 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.
- dustinmj3@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Dustin M James <dustinmjj4@outlook.com>
Reply-To: <dustinmj3@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2014 08:48:30 +0000
Subject: My Regards
Hello,
I am a British soldier, presently serving in Afghanistan.
We discovered an abandon sum of money in a tunnel of which i got twelve Million United State dollars (Twelve Million usd). The money was in cash in 100 dollar bills. The money was kept secretly in a box in the tunnel. The money was believed to be owned by the displaced / fled terrorist at the time that we launched attack on their hideout.
I contacted you for a mutual and confidential business because I was shortlisted among the soldiers that will soon be withdrawn from Afghanistan as proposed by our government. I am afraid that our security intelligence may discover the money while we are leaving Afghanistan to Britain. Because of the above reasons i want to move the money quickly to you for safe-keeping pending the completion of my assignment here. I will give you 25% of the money while you keep 75% for me till we meet.
If you are interested, please reply for discussion / negotiation.through this my private email. dustinmj3@hotmail.com
Best regards,
Dustin .M. James
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Anti-fraud resources:
