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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:
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Richard Gilster" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <richardgilster1@buzonabc.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:34:11 -0700
Subject: Dear Beneficiary : Immediate Resolution of your fund payment.
Dear Beneficiary,
I hope that this correspondence is received with the urgency and expediency required.
It has come to the notice of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Ministry of Finance that your present inheritance claims application being handled by the Remmitting Bank in Nigeria is experiencing some man made irregularities. To this effect, it has become neccesary for the Board of Trustees to invite trained Fund Transfer Specalists from the United States to resolve and regularize your fund release with immediate effect.
We at Richard Gilster Consults have been duly consulted by the Federal Ministry of Finance Board of Trustees and the Office of the Presidency and have been fully informed about how the staff of the remmitting bank have been taking advantage of you by telling you to pay unneccesarily exhorbitant charges which will only make your fund payment a long drawn out process.
Due to this we have decided to step into the process of your fund transfer to enable your funds to be transfered within the soonest possible time you are to get back to us immediatly without needing to pay all the huge sums of monies that are being demanded from you by the remmitting bank.
All proccesses to have your funds paid to you imediately through the Federal Reserve Bank in New York have been initiated to cut out unneccesary costs. You are advised to keep this communication highly confidential as the Federal Ministry of Finance Board of Trustees and the Office of the Presidency have asked us to resolve this fund payment independent of the office of the CBN Gorvernor to identify the principal participants in this unethical payment procedure.
Furthermore, you are hereby advised to pay no furtherfees or charges to the Remmitting Bank in Nigeria as they shall no longer be handling your payment process.
We shall await your immediate correspondence with your direct telephone numbers for re-confirmation to my confidential email address at (richardgilster1@buzonabc.com) so that we may conclude your payment immediately.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Richard Gilster
Richard Gilster Consults c/o CBN.
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