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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
- 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.
- burnettsteve59@mynet.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Steve Burnett" <burnettsteve59@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: burnettsteve59@terra.com
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 13:44:15 -0800
Subject: please respond for details
--
Happy New Year,
I am Steve Burnett a lawyer based here in the UK and i am contacting you
now based on the urgent need for me to present a foreigner to the Barclays
Bank here as a “NEXT-OF-KIN” to my late client who happens to be the
bank’s costumer.
Hadim Kazim was a Canadian of Bangladesh decent and he died in an auto
crash in Malaysia while he was away on a business trip.(
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article3849833.ece )
I have made uncountable efforts to locate any relative of Mr. Hadim Kazim
but to no avail. The situation is a desperate one in that if i fail to
provide the bank with a next of kin, the bank automatically claims the
funds.
As the lawyer to the deceased who died inter-state (without a will), it is
my sole responsibility to provide the bank with a next of kin to lay claim
to this fund.
Please, work with me on this as i have all it takes to make this work and
we will share the funds between us and a certain percentage will be
reserved for a special charity work.
I will wait to hear from you to provide you with further details. Please
reply through my private email id : burnettsteve59@mynet.com
Thanks,
Steve Burnett( esq )
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Anti-fraud resources:
