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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: "Mr. Tourg Davis" <johnchidi1@cantv.net>
Reply-To: tourgd_1@yahoo.com.ph
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:17:43 -0430 (VET)
Subject: Re: reply
Hello,
Thank you for taking out time to read this message despite all the spam around. I am Mr. Tourg Davis from Cote d'Ivoire Ivory Coast the son of late Mr. James Tourg a former special assistance to Mr. Alassanne Ouattara the internally acclaimed winner of the just concluded Election in our country who was recently killed by solders loyal to the illegal and the Defiant president Laurent Gbagbo.
Meanwhile, I am presently in Accra-Ghana our Neighboring country with help of the united nation personnel officers working in our country. As his only son I inherited the sum of $46 million packaged and kept in a vault upon arriving Ghana. It was kept for safe-keeping to take care of my family. So I need a foreign trusted person who will help me to invest this fund into any lucrative business. As a matter of fact, my father is dead hence my family can no longer have any other means of livelihood except through this fund.
It may interest you to know that this money came from the sales and proceeds of cocoa, gold and diamonds because my late father was a big merchant in solid minerals before he met his untimely death. All the documents to prove the deposit of this fund are with me.
Please I am writing to seek your assistance as a faithful person to stand and accept to transfer this money to your country as my foreign partner and my co-beneficiary of this fund.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Mr. Tourg Davis
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Anti-fraud resources:
