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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:
- "a security company " (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Blessing Benard" <blessing_bn@outlook.com>
Reply-To: "Mrs. Blessing Benard" <blessing_bn@aim.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 00:28:53 +0900 (JST)
Subject: INVESTMENT ASSISTANCE NEEDED
INVESTMENT ASSISTANCE NEEDED:
My greetings to you and your family.
It is my pleasure to introduce myself to you before going into details of what am about to discuss with you. I am Mrs. Blessing Benard from Ivory Coast. I got married to Mr. Benard Salif for 15 years before his demise in 2010 and our union was blessed with a daughter. We are from the town in northern part of my Country (Ivory-Coast) called "SEGULA" where my husband had a Gold mining field and he stored some of this gold substance acquired from our field in a security company located in Europe including the some of equivalent $5.8 Million USD which he made from previous sales of the Gold substance respectively. Unfortunately, after his death on December 2010, the field was forcefully taken from us by the rebel who fought to bring in the new government into power.
My husband sealed an equivalent of 120 Kilograms of GOLD BARS in a metal box and also the sum $5.8 Million USD in another box which he kept as family valuables in the company's security vault.
Now I and my daughter are in dire situation here because our community was badly affected during the political crisis that gripped our country from 2010 to 2011. My daughter and I are left with nothing at this point, hence I decided to confide in you and seek for your sincere help on the following:
(1.) I want you to buy the gold at a price which you and I will agree upon, and after the sales has been completed successfully; we would like to use part of the money for investment in a real estate in your country and the other part to start new life.
(2.) I want you to help me secure the box containing the sum of $5.8 Million from the security company. 30% will be your share of these funds while 70% will be for me and my daughter. Our intentions are to invest these funds in a profitable field outside Africa, where we hope to spend the rest of our lives in peace and good comfort.
If you are interested and willing to help us in this, please do contact me at your convenient for more details.
I wait for your response as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely
Mrs. Blessing Benard.
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