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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:
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: michael bongo <wc2456b@live.fr>
Reply-To: <bongomichael11@yahoo.fr>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 20:02:19 +0200
Subject: =?Windows-1252?Q?Please_let?= =?Windows-1252?Q?=92s_work_to?=
=?Windows-1252?Q?gether.?=
Please let’s work together.
It is my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I intend to
establish in your country. Though i have not met with you before but I believe
one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed sometimes in life. I am 24
years old and there is this amount of $7.3 Million United States Dollar which
my late father deposited with a bank here in Abidjan Cote D'ivoire which he
wanted to use for his political ambition in our Country before he was
assassinated.
Now I have decided to invest this money in your country or any where safe
enough outside our country for security and political reasons. I want you to
send me your details were this fund will be transferred into so that as soon as
the money gets to your account I will be coming over to your country to finish
my education and also the investment of the money while you will be the manager
of the investment until I finish my education.
I would like to invest part of the money into this three areas of investment in
your Country but if there is any other business that is better than what I'm
suggesting, I will be very glad to follow your advice.
1). Real estate
2). The transport industry
3). Telecommunication
If you can be of an assistance to me I will be pleased to offer you 20% of the
total fund while the balance will be invested by you.
I await your soonest response.
Regards,
Michael
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Anti-fraud resources:
