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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "economic and financial crimes commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "(efcc)" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "farida waziri" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- administrator.efcc@bol.com.br (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "EFCC" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <administrator.efcc@bol.com.br>
Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2013 07:28:59 -0500
Subject: UNEFFECTED COMPENSATION/INHERITANCE FUND TRANSFER.
Attention:
My name is Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi Lamorde the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) New Executive Officer. I understand you are expecting your fund sum to be wired to your bank account for some years now but your expectation has not been met.
I am contacting you to let you know the truth because i know how far you have gone in trying to get your funds paid out to you under the leadership of the erstwhile Chairperson Mrs Farida Waziri. Which has caused you to pay huge sums of money into wrong hands most especially to Fraudsters who frequently impersonate the identity of real Government and Bank Officials to help make themselves and their scam appear legitimate.
I will be ready to help in delivering your fund sum to you with your honest and sincere co-operation with my Office. For a quicker response to your letter i could be reached immediately via the email contained herein: administrator.efcc@bol.com.br
Sincerely,
Mr Ibrahim Lamorde,
Chairman,
EFCC.
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