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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- wong.albert668@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Albert Wong" <albertwong07@gmail.com>
Reply-To: wong.albert668@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:28:15 -0400
Subject: Next Of Kin
Dear Friend,
Permit me to inform you of my desire of going into business
relationship with you. I got your contact from a computerize
data following my effort searching for a trustworthy person
to assist me.
I am Albert Wong; Singaporean and an Accountant with HSBC
Bank Malaysia. It is with good spirit of heart I opened up
this great opportunity to you. A deceased client of mine
that shares the same last name as yours died as a result of
heart-related condition on March 12th 2005. His heart
condition was due to the death of all the members of his
family in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 in
Sumatra Indonesia where they all lost their lives. Currently
his account of US$7.3 million with us has been unclaimed due
to unavailability of next of kin/relatives to claim his
estate.
Since none of the family relative is alive to claim this
fund, haven waited until now for any relative next of kin to
surface in our custody; I decided to contact you fast since
you both share the same last name. With your cooperation, I
can present you as the relative next of kin to my late
client before the funds are confiscated. You don’t need to
worry yourself in this transaction. I will provide the legal
documents in your name and favor.
Hence I am seeking your cooperation and understanding to
stand as the deceased next of kin to enable us claim the
inheritance before the period given elapse. If you are
interested and in agreement to work with me, get back to me
with your information and address. I will send to you all
our contacts and the information you may need to proceed.
The proceedings will be shared 40% for you 50% for me and
10% for any expenses we might incur during this process.
Best Regards,
Albert Wong
wong.albert668@gmail.com
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