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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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "John Mensah" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jmensa@n4wi.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:56:09 -0700
Subject: Good Day
Good Day,
Pardon me for not having the pleasure of knowing your mindset before making
you this offer as it is utterly confidential and genuine by virtue of its
nature. I write to solicit your assistance in a funds transfer deal
involving US$3.5M.
This fund has been stashed out of the excess profit made two years ago by my
branch office the International Commercial Bank which I am the manager. I
have already submitted an approved end of the year report for the year 2008
to my head office here in Accra-Ghana and they will never know of this excess.
I have since then, placed this amount in a Non-Investment Account without a beneficiary.
Upon your response, I will configure your name on our database as holder of
the Non-Investment Account. I will then guide you on how to apply to my head
office for the Account Closure/ bank-to-bank remittance of the funds to your
designated bank account.
If you concur with this proposal, I intend for you to retain 30% of the
funds while 70% shall be for me.
Regards,
John Mensah
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Anti-fraud resources:
