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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:
- "trunk box" (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)
- "trunk boxes" (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 next of kin scam.
- 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.
- sgt.jhughes@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "JAMES HUGHES" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sgt.jhughes@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 03:19:18 -0300
Subject: INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
Dear Sir,
My name is Sgt James Hughes, an American soldier serving in the 25th Brigade of the 3rd infantry Division in Iraq.
During our last mission in Syria, We recovered a large cache of ammunition alongside two trunk boxes which contained huge sums of money allegedly belonging to corrupt government officials of the Assad regime here in Syria.
This recovery is part of many others by US special forces in joint commands on ground, and in various operations around the gulf.
We currently seek your assistance to transfer these funds to your custody for safekeeping. Our aim is to support charity groups and organizations involved in humanitarian aid in war ravaged regions.
All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us work together to the success of this deal. I guarantee you that it will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.
You must however assure us that you will not sit on these funds when it gets to your private or company account as this requires a high level of honesty,trust and confidentiality and I believe you are one of such repute.
We have decided to let you retain a portion for your co-operation while the remaining goes to my commanding officers and I.
Let me also assure you that this transaction is highly risk free and there are no other parties involved.
Kindly accord your favorable reply to my private email: sgt.jhughes@yahoo.com
I will brief you more on the details upon your response.
Regards
James
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