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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:
- "abidjan" (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.
- 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.
- helenekodjo1@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Helene Kodjo <helenekodjo0@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Helene Kodjo <helene.kodjo2013@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 14:55:26 +0100 (BST)
Subject: From Miss Helene Kodjo
From Miss Helene Kodjo
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
West Africa.
Email: (helenekodjo1@yahoo.com
Dear after going through your profile i decided to contact you for
friendship and assistace.I am Miss Helene Kodjo the only child of late
chief and Mrs Kodjo ,my father was poisoned to death by his business
associates because of his wealth and during my fathers sickness he
called me on his sick bed as his only child because my mother died when i was young and told me about the money($6.650.000) he deposited in a
bank here in our country that it was because of this money he was
poisoned that if he dies i shall look for some one whom i trust to help
me transfer this money out of this our country to his account for
investment purpose abroad while i will continue my education then the
person will be managing the investment.Dear am soliciting your
assistance to help me transfer this money out of this country for my life sake while i will come to meet you to continue my education in your country.
Dear am looking forward to hear from you so that we can discuss on what will be your compensation f this assistace.As i have every documents that
relates to this transfer.
Please reply me directely on this my private mail box for more details.
(helenekodjo1@yahoo.com
Expecting to hear from you.
Thanks
Miss Helene Kodj
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