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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "economic financial crime commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "(efcc)" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- 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.
- office.input@sify.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Babatunde George <office.input@sify.com>
Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 14:54:12 +0200
Subject: PARTNERSHIP
office.input@sify.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Dear Sir/Madam
I am Babatunde George, one of the sons of Chief Bode George that was recently jailed 2yrs for defrauding the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) to the to tune of (#85billion) Eighty-Five Billion Naira about (USD600M) six hundred million United American Dollars.
Part of this fund is been deposited by my father with a security firms in Europe which is about(USD75M) Seventy-Five United American Dollars.
I am contacting you in respect of this fund, we want to move it out and we need a trust worthy somebody that will help receive this fund and invest it in a very good and profitable business for the family, because some of my father properties has been seized and his account has been frozen by the Federal Government of Nigeria through ECONOMIC FINANCIAL CRIME COMMISSION (EFCC).
It may please you to visit this site link below for you to understand what i am really talking about. http://www.sturvs.com/Blogs/Bode_George_sentenced_to_two_years_in_jail/
As soon as i hear from you, i will forward to you all the documents that covered the fund.
For Further details please get back to me as soon as possible with your;
Full Names.
Occupation.
Contact Address.
Identity.
Tel/Fax Numbers.
E-mail Address.
I will be waiting your response soon.
Regards,
Babatunde George
Email Id; office.input@sify.com
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