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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:
- "abidjan" (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.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +22566117687 (Cote d'Ivoire, probably a prepaid mobile phone)
Fraud email example:
From: Desmond uwah <desmond.uwah@hotmail.fr>
Reply-To: uwahdesmond@rocketmail.com
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:07:04 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: From Desmond Uwah.
>From Desmond Uwah.
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
West Africa.
Dear i decided to contact you for friendship and assistace.I am Desmond Uwah the only child of late chief and Mrs Uwah ,my father was poisoned to death by his business associates because of his wealth and during my fathers sickness he called me on his sick bed as his only child because my mother died when i was young and told me about the money($10.500.000) he deposited in a bank here in our country that it was because of this money he was poisoned that if he dies i shall look for some one whom i trust to help me transfer this money out of this our country to his account for investment purpose abroad while i will continue my education then the person will be managing the investment. Dear am soliciting your assistance to help me transfer this money out of this country for my life sake while i will come to meet you to continue my education in your country.
Dear am looking forward to hear from you so that we can discuss on what will be your compensation for this assistace. As i have some documents that relates to this transfer.
Please reply me directely for more details.
Tel +225 66 11 76 87
Expecting to hear from you.
Thanks
Desmond Uwah
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