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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Chief James Ibor" <chiefjamesibori350@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ibori.chiefjames@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2014 20:31:51 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Re:From Chief James Ibori,
I will be happy to read your message there.
Hello good day.
My name is Chief James Ibori (Born 4 August 1958) was the Governor of Delta
State in Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007.I am a member of the ruling
People's Democratic Party (PDP). I was arguably the most vocal advocate for
resource nationalism in Nigeria i am writing to you directly from a detention
here in London.I choose to contact you directly because i have nobody anymore
especially from my family and my associates to trust anymore.You are a neutral
person and i am willing to share a few of my secrets especially my hidden fund.
Nobody else knows about this huge fund in an account in the bank. So, i ask you
only one question; can you help me claim this fund into your own account. This
account must hold over $550M United States Dollars.I would reward you
handsomely. Reply me before I go further because I would like to hear from you
first.
I wait to hear from you as soon as possible.
Regards.
Chief James Ibor.
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