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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 states 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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- 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.
- africanunitusa@bk.ru (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: " ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNIT USA" <kobaien@deluxe.ocn.ne.jp>
Reply-To: "africanunitusa@bk.ru" <africanunitusa@bk.ru>
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 01:32:10 +0900 (JST)
Subject: ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNIT USA
Attention :
Information have reached to this office from West African
representatives over the scams you went through in the past in African
region most especially in Cotonou Benin Republic and Nigeria and also
here in United States Of America . Please kindly send your full house
address and phone number so that we can proceed . This Organization
is been set up by all African Countries Ambassadors in USA .
The commission will pay back all the money you lost in the past as
long as Africa is involved . We have US$150,000,000 ( One Hundred And
Fifty Million United States Dollars ) from all the Presidents in
Africa just to pay back to those who lost their hard earned money to
the African scam artists . Reply back with the details you can
remember . Email us on:(africanunitusa@bk.ru)
ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNIT USA
5800 FLEUR DRIVE , SUITE 207
DES MOINES , IOWA 50321-2854 USA
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Anti-fraud resources:
