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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:
- 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:
- "loan amount" (Beware of fake loan offers. Real lenders would not normally use free webmail addresses such as Yahoo, nor would they lend to individuals or small businesses in a different country from where they are based. Beware of mobile phones or redirector numbers!)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "WRLH" <info@loan.net>
Reply-To: williamsrussell@qq.com
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2015 23:08:33 +0300
Subject: Loan Offer
We offer secured and unsecured loans to individuals and companies at an
interest rate of 2% for long and short term loans, our company has
recorded a lot of breakthrough in the provision of first class financial
services to our customers, particularly in the area of loan deferral and
capital provision for individuals and companies . Our loan amount for
business development, competitiveness and expanding business ranges from
20,000 (USD) (EUR) (GBP) to 900 million(EUR) (GBP) if you are interested,
Kindly contact is via email ; williamsrussell@qq.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
