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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:
- "huge amount of money" (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)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "god fearing " (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Alice Koromah <alice_koromah2000@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: alice_koromah200@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:46:33 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Nice To Meet You
Nice To Meet You
I am very pleased to contact you and request from you a humanity heart
to accept me as your Sister and to be My guadian,Please i wish to
introduce myself well to you Iam Miss Flornic Ede From captal city of
Cote D'lvoire Abidjan and i wish to invest in your country and i am
pleading with you to be my Adviser/Guidian.
Honestly i don't really know which area to invest in because i am still
schooling and i have never invested before and don't have any idea on
investement issues this is why i need you to be my guidian/adviser .
When my mother died on the 21st October 1992, my father took me so
special because I am motherless. Before the death of my father on 27th
June 2005 in a private hospital here in Abidjan. He secretly called me
on his bedside and told me that he has a sum of $6.500.000 left in a
Bank here in Cote d'ivoire, that he used my name as her only daugther
for the next of kin in depositing of the Money
I will be happy you read my proposal and your willingness to assist me
to invest my inheritane money which my parents left for me read this
mail well i will detail you and give you the contact of the bank where
this money is deposited so that you can here from them on how to
transfer my money into your own account in your country for the
investment on my name further more he also explained to me that it was
because of this wealth and some huge amount of money his business
associates supposed to balance him from the deal they had that he was
been poisoned.He then advised that I should seek for a God fearing
foreign partner in a country of my choice who will assist me transfer
this fund and use it for investment purpose, then I would want you to
provide your personal contacts including your phone/fax number for
easier communication.
Anticipating to hear from you soon.
Thanks and God bless.
Best regards,
Miss Flornic
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