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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 friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "i will like you to " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "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)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Malik Karam <malik_karam@libero.it>
Reply-To: malikkaram@voila.fr
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:57:30 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Urgent Business Proposal
From: Mr Malik Karam,
Bank Of Africa (BOA).
Ouagadougou-Burkina Faso.Dear Friend, I am sorry for intruding into your privacy. I am the bill and exchange manager with the Bank of Africa here in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. I hope that you will not expose or betray this trust and confidence that I am about to repose in you for the mutual benefit of our individual families. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($15.5)Million dollars immediately to your account, the money has been dormant for years in our Bank here without anybody coming for it. I want us to team up and convince the bank to release the money to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer (the owner of the account) who died alongside his family in an air crash since 25th December 2003. I don't want the money to go into our Bank's treasury as an abandoned fund. This is the reason why I contacted you, so that the bank where I work as a staff will release the money to you as the nearest person to the deceased
customer.Please, I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested. Upon receipt of this mail, I will like you to send to me the following for confirmation of interest: YOUR FULL NAME............
YOUR MOBILE NUMBER...........
YOUR AGE..................
YOUR OCCUPATION..........
YOUR FULL ADDRESS........... I will send to you the full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 40% of the above mentioned sum if you agree to transact the business with me. I will like you to know that we are going to make some expenses before the fund will be transfered into your account for the facilitation of the transfer process. Thank's and hoping to hear from you.
Mr. Malik Karam.
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