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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 orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: mail <dbrhwllms1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: deborahwilliams123@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 05:11:00 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Dear Beloved One
Dear Beloved One
I am Deborah Williams 23 years of age the only daughter of late Mr Boni Williams whom was killed by the rebels that attacked our country cote d'Ivoire west Africa and took over our town (BOUAKE). I ran to Abidjan the economical capital of cote d'ivoire from were I am contacting you.Before the death of my father he told me that he has a sum of US$2,100,000(Two million one hundred united states dollars) kept in a bank in cote d'ivoire in my name as the next of kin.
Please, in the capacity of the next of kin, I am contacting you with due sence of humanity and responsibility and with few awareness that you will give it a sympathetic and mutual consideration. I am honourably seeking your assistance in the following ways.
(1)To provide a bank account where this money would be transferred to.
(2)To serve as the guardian of this fund and to contact the bank to take transferred of the fund.
(3)To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education.
(4)To provide good investment plans for the fund. I am willing to offer you 20% of the total sum as compensation for your effort /input after the successful transfer of this fund to your nominated account overseas before the investments starts. and I have maped 5% for any expenses that might be incured during the course of this transaction.
furthermore, you can indicate your option towards assisting me as I believe that this transaction would be concluded within a stipulated period of time you signify your interest to assist me.
Thanks and God bless you.
Best regards,
Deborah Williams.
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