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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.
- scrapmetal530@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Gold Mining <empower564h@gmail.com>
Reply-To: scrapmetal530@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2015 10:21:33 +0000
Subject: Raw Gold / Diamond Investment......
Greeting
This is to inform you of our interest and desire to make a publicity of our
industry a small scale mining firm here in west Africa to seek for a
foreign individual or body for exportation of Gold & Diamond to any part of
the world based on your experience, idea & interest in this proposal.
Furthermore, we will furnish you the necessary documents of our existing
firm including the government authorization certificate for mining Gold &
Diamond in this territory. Do not hesitate to message us back in case you
are interested for further action.As our Agent we are ready to give some
commission of the total purchase if you can connect us to a buyer. Our
Email Address (scrapmetal530@gmail.com)
Best Regards
Marketing Manager
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Anti-fraud resources:
