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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:
- "million 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)
- "abuja" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr.Patrick owolabi" <webbmaster3003@att.net>
Reply-To: mrpatrickowolabi_3003@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 05:12:59 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: ATTENTION: THE BENEFICIARY.
OFFICE OF THE SENATE HOUSE
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN PAYMENT
(RESOLUTION PANEL ON CONTRACT PAYMENT)
ABUJA -NIGERIA
Dear Contractor,
The Second Payment of Your Long Overdue Contract Sum.This is to acknowledge you that the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the Democratic administration of President Umaru Musa Yar dua?? are Ready to Transfer to you the Second Ten million Dollars (USD$10million) into your account, we have in recent months made the first Ten million on the 5th.August, 2009 in line and cooperation with United Nation to settle all our legitimate contract debts.
We would like to confirm once again if this second amount Should go into the same bank, POST BANK U.S.A. ACCOUNT NUMBER#: 873 22407 with Branch number BSB # 084 707.USA.
I urgently expect your implicit cooperation as soon as you get this message so that we can advice the Cbn to carry on the transfer accordingly with others as map for this second Quarter .
We await your early response.
Regards
Mr Patrick Owolabi
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Anti-fraud resources:
