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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "courier company" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Mcwillson Carlos <mcwillsoncarlos@msn.com> (may be fake)
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2012 04:00:11 -0300
Subject: Your Payment(ATM CARD).
INTERNATIONAL REMITTANCE
FOREIGN OPERATIONS DEPT,
UBA BANK.
NOTIFICATION OF PAYMENT BY ATM CARD.
Attn: Beneficiary,
We hereby officially notifying you about your Compensation Fund
initiated/constituted by UNCC(UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION COMMISSION) to pay
off your Inheritance/Compensation fund. We the board of directors UBA Bank PLC
was mandated to pay off your compensation fund. Your compensation fund will be
paid through ATM CARD. We have uploaded your ATM CARD with 1.5 million USD
which is valid to be used anywhere in the world where ATM (AUTOMATED TELLER
MACHINE) is accessible. The uploading of your compensation fund into ATM CARD
has been done perfectly and we have also arranged with UPS courier company to
carry out the delivery process as soon
as we hear from you.
You are to contact UPS courier company immediately and provide them with your
delivery address for them to commence on the delivery of your package without
any delay.
Contact person:
Joel Mathew
UPS Benin
BP 485, 3 Rue du Gouverneur Fourn
Cotonou/Benin
Email: joelmathew@w.cn
From the desk of Dr. Mcwillson Carlos,
Secretary foreign operation dept.
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Servicio de WebMail REDCyT - IMP: http://horde.org/imp/
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Anti-fraud resources:
