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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Haruna Buhari" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hbuhari_02@gala.net>
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:27:51 +0100
Subject: May i confide in you?
Dear partner,
May i confide in you? If yes, please i do have reason for both of us to enshrine total trust and confidence
in my quest for you to be my foreign benefactor.
Honestly I want you to keep a part payment of my 10% contract commission bill from a contractor
whose 100% claims had been paid accordingly, remaining my 10% which the firm agreed to compensate me with;
for shortlisting and approving their contract bidding. This money is just my gratification.
But Can i trust you to receive and keep this money for me? Here in my country, civil servants are precluded
from operating foreign account which implies that this my 10% must be paid to a trusted and faithful partner
overseas.
I will give you a reasonable compensation as your share if you will not betray me.This compensation will be
mutually agreed by you and imyself.
Please treat as most urgent and confidential. I wait your kind opinion on this.
This is free and legitimate but unofficial personal gratification by the construction company.
Yours sincerely,
HARUNA BUHARI
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Anti-fraud resources:
