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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:
- "offshore account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: DAVID PHIL <othman_zubi@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: davidphil87@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 03:44:47 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: CAN I TRUST YOU
I'm the Executive Head offshore account department at HSBC Holdings
London. I'm contacting you to disclose a mutual transaction which
would benefit us $90M USD in a few weeks time if you are willing to
cooperate with me.
During the auditing and closing of all financial records at HSBC bank
account department in 2011 annual debit and deposit funds
confirmation, it was discovered from the records an outstanding
investment funds deposited by a foreign investor (Mr. F.Joel
Waworundeng). This investor deposited the sum of Ninety Million USD
and the fund has been floating since 2009 with HSBC bank offshore
investment account and after my investigations to trace his address in
Indonesia, I found out that he was among the people who died in the
Japan tsunami disaster in 2011. Also all effort to get in touch with
his relatives was to no avail.
On a second attempt, I also reviewed the offshore investment
documentations which are in my department and also confirmed that this
fund was deposited as an investment lodging by the customer. Whereby
the customer has not registered anybody/company name as next of kin to
this fund. Prior to my confirmation on this investment fund
documentations I realized on the documentations that this fund was not
declared to the British Government at the time of deposit by the
deceased beneficiary. Now I want to stand as his next of kin so we
could claim this investment fund. Since all documentations and proof
of the deposited fund are in my department. We can put in a claim
proposal letter to HSBC bank to claim the deposited funds through the
British International Investment proclamation Act which will enable
the bank to release and transfer the fund to your bank account.
With my position in the bank we can successfully claim the fund and
you will get 40% and I will get 60% of the total fund.The claim
process will commence as soon as I hear from you so we could work
together in confidence and make this deal possible.
Yours,
David
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