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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.
- This email message is a "dying widow" scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Gecena" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <gecena10@rogers.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2010 06:23:01 -0000
Subject: PLEASE ENDEAVOUR TO USE IT FOR THE SICK, POOR AND NEEDY CHILDREN.
PLEASE ENDEAVOUR TO USE IT FOR THE SICK, POOR AND NEEDY CHILDREN.
I am Mrs. Gecena, I am married to Dr. Harward who worked with Bahrain embassy in Cote d'Ivoire for nine years before he died in the year 2009. We were married for many years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for 2 weeks. Before his death we were both good Christians and after his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against of.
When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of 4.5 Million U.S. Dollars with a Finance Company and presently, this money is still with the Finance Company. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next three months due to cancer problem. Though what disturbs me most is my stroke and having known my poor condition of health I decided to donate this fund to the Church of God, the poor and the helpless children of our society. I have found you after going through your profile and my instinct tells me you could be of a great help to the justly distribution of this wealth.
The Bible made us to understand that Blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband's relatives are not Christians and I don't want my husband's hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers and whosoever wishes to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and truth. Any delay in your reply will give me a room in search for another religious individual for this same purpose.
I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner. Hence the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death because I know that by the sepecial grace of God Almighty I will retire to His bossom when I die.
Hoping to hear from you soon and may God bless yoou.
>From Mrs. Gecena.
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Anti-fraud resources:
