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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:
- "the consignment" (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)
- "consignment " (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)
- "million united state dollars" (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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "the diplomat " ("diplomats" who perform deliveries of cash or other valuables to you only exist 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: "Mr Thomas Goodman" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <thomadscotman@yahoo.com.au>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 02:48:44 -0700
Subject: Regarding Delivery/Boxes
Read Below,
On behalf of the General Board,We have decided to notify you after the meeting that was held yesterday
regards your due funds which was supposed to be transferred via the online swift system to your bank
account weeks ago but due to the new system which was introduced by the IRS and the IMF, the transfer
was not successful.
However, we have already concluded that your funds cannot be confiscated or declared as abandoned
funds so to this ends, your due funds 8.9 Million United State Dollars has been packaged into two
consignment boxes which is going to be delivered to you in your home by a reliable diplomat who will be
coming over to your country by this week.
I made sure that your funds was well arranged in here into the two consignment boxes so that none of the
boxes can be tampered with until they get to your destination because they are metallic and both have
security locks. Now the diplomat is ready to proceed with the delivery but before that you are required to
re-confirm the following information across to me upon receipt of this email so that the delivery procedure
will commence:
(1). Your full Names:
(2). Your Identity such as, International Passport or D/License:
(3). Nationality:
(4). Your Contact Phone Numbers:
(5). Home Address:
(6). Age
(7). Occupation:
(8). time to get you on phone:
Please bear in mind that am only doing this for your sake and to make sure that all your funds get to you
and i will appreciate your compensation immediately the assigned diplomat get the boxes deliver to you.
One other thing i want to point out here is that we did not declare the content of the boxes to the diplomat
for security reasons because most diplomat can be tempted when they know the value of what they are
carrying so in your contact with him you are advise never to disclose to him that the consignment boxes
contain these amount of funds.
I will be waiting for the needed information so that the delivery will commence.
Regards
Thomas Goodman
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