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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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Phil Yaroh" <phil_yr779@msn.com>
Reply-To: phil_yaroh@voila.fr
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 16:32:23 +0000
Subject: important request
Dear friend,
I am Dr. Phil Yaroh, a banker by profession from Burkina Faso in West Africa and currently holding the post of Director Auditing and Accounting unit of the bank. It's my urgent need for a foreign partner that made me to contact you for this business. I have the opportunity of transferring the left over funds ($11.5 million) of one of my bank clients who died along with his entire family on 31 July 2000 in a plane crash. You can confirm the genuineness of the deceased death by clicking on this web site. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
I need a foreign partner who will support me because i can not claim this money alone without a foreign partner since the deceased client (the owner of the fund) was a foreigner.
This fund ($11.5 million) will be shared between us in the ratio of 60/40. I agreed that 40% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foreign account while 60% will be for me and I want to assure you that this transaction is absolutely legal and risk free since i work in this bank and i have all the necessary information that might be needed. Before we proceed, i would like to know your ability to handle this over there in your country.
Please tell me more about the political/economic stability/monetary policy of your country. I need to know all these because i don't want to have problem with the Government of your country.
Kindly update me with the following information because i want to know you more before we proceed on this transaction. Hope you will understand the importance of this request.
1. Your full name........................
2. Your age/sex ..........................
3. your occupation ................
4. Your residential/Postal address ..................
5. Country of origin/nationality ..............
6. Your private phone number ..................
7. Your fax number ...................
I will be waiting for your response.
Thanks for your understanding.
Have a great day.
Yours.
Dr. Phil Yaroh
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