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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:
- "any lucrative business in your country" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "huge amount of money" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "god fearing " (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- "remain blessed" (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Miss Rachu Abdul <missrachuabdu@gmail.com>
Reply-To: missrachuabd@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 22:30:49 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: URGENT NEED OF YOUR PARTNERSHIP
Hello Dear,
Permit me to inform you of my desire of going into business relationship with you. I got your contact from the International web site directory. I am Miss Rachu Abdul; the only Daughter of late Mr and Mrs Frank Abdul. My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast before he was poisoned to death by his business associates on one of their outing to discuss on a business deal. Meanwhile, before the death of my father on 30th May 2008 in a private hospital here in Abidjan he secretly called me on his bedside and told me that he has a sum of $12.500.000 (Twelve Million five hundred thousand dollars) left in a suspense account in Burkina-Faso, that he used my name as his only Daughter for the next of kin during the time of deposit.
He also explained to me that it was because of this wealth and some huge amount of money that his business associates are supposed to balance him from the last cocoa deal that made his business associates to poison him. He asked me to seek for a God fearing foreign partner in a country of my choice where I will transfer this money and use it for investment purpose for the betterment of my life. As it stands now, I want you to know that I am here seeking for an avenue to transfer this money to a reliable and trustworthy individual for investment programmes. Moreover, I am willing to offer you 30% of the sum as compensation for effort input after the successful transfer of this fund to your designate account overseas and you will help me to invest the balance into any lucrative business in your country.
Waiting to read and i will give you more details as soon as i hear from you.
Remain blessed.
Miss Rachu Abdul.
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