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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "hundred thousand united state 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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Elvis Brown" <elvisbrown121@rocketmail.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:00:17 +0100
Subject: urgent
Hello,
How are you today?I am a staff of Exim Bank Malaysia. I am
writing following an opportunity in my office that will be
of immense benefit to both of us.In my department I
discovered an abandoned sum of Ten Million Nine hundred
thousand united state dollars ($10.9m) account that belongs
to one of our foreign customers Late Mr,Francis Graig an
American who unfortunately lost his life in the Tsunami
disaster in Thailand 2005.including his wife and only
daughter.since I got information about his death, I have
been expecting his next of kin or relatives to come over and
claim his money because the bank cannot release it unless
somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking
guidelines.Unfortunately I lent that his supposed next of
kin being his only daughter died along with him in the
Tsunami disaster leaving nobody with the knowledge of this
fund behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this
discovery that I decided to make business with you to enable
the Bank release the money to you as the next of kin or
beneficiary of the funds for safety keeping and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want
this money to go back into Bank treasury as unclaimed
bill.The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that
such money remained after five years the money will be
transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed funds.I
agreed that 30% of this money will be for you as foreign
partner,10% will be use to upset expenses that might in cure
on the cost of making this transaction a success while 60%
will be for me. Please note that all necessary arrangement
for the smooth release of these funds to you has been
finalized.
My Regards,
Dr Elvis Brown.
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