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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)
- "davidchan56@live.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. David Chan" <widiastuti@bpptk.esdm.go.id>
Reply-To: "Mr. David Chan" <davidchan56@live.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:45:21 +0700 (WIT)
Subject: Dear Friend
Dear Friend,
My name is Mr. David Chan, I'm a Singaporean and a seasoned Banker with Malaysia HSBC Bank (Malaysia office) am as well an account officer to a deceased customer of our bank, we lost this customer in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 in Sumatra Indonesia. His account of US$19.761 million with us have been unclaimed due to unavailability of next of kin/relatives to claim his estate.The fact that you share almost the same last name.
My late customer was awarded two different contracts with Shell Development Company here before his untimely demise on 26th December 2004.I am seeking your cooperation to stand as the next of kin to enable us claim the inheritance before the period given by the bank elapse.
Please reply immediately with your information
Regards.
Mr. David Chan
davidchan56@live.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
