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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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: michael <eleebana.michae@gmail.com>
Reply-To: eleebanamichael@ymail.com
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 18:55:32 +0100 (BST)
Subject: I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE.
Dear friend,
I am Mrs.Eleebana Michael, the head of file department of African
development bank (A.D.B) here in Burkina Faso / Ouagadougou . In my
department we discover an abandoned sum of (US$8.3mllion US Dollars)
in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died
along with his family in plane crash.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this
business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of
kin or relation to the deceased for the safety and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it. I agree that 40% of this
money will be for you, while 60% would be for me. Then after the money
is been transferred into your account, I will visit your country
for an investment under your kind control.
You have to contact my Bank directly as the real next of kin of this
deceased account with next of kin application form. You have to send
me those your information below to enable me use it and get you next
of kin application form from bank, so that you will contact Bank for
the transfer of this money into your account.
Your Full Name....................
Your Home Address.................
Your Age..........................
You’re Handset Number...............
Your Occupation...................
I am waiting for your urgent respond to enable us proceed further
For the transfer.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs.Eleebana Michael
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Anti-fraud resources:
