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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: phanyin@hotmail.com
Reply-To: Phantongyin@qq.com
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 12:22:55 +0700
Subject: Greetings
Greetings
I am Mr. Phan Yin Tong, and a personal Accountant working with one of the Major bank here in asia . It is with good spirit of heart I opened up this great opportunity to you. A deceased client of mine that shares almost the same name as yours died as a result of heart-related condition on March 12th 2005. His heart condition was due to the death of all the members of his family in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 in Sumatra Indonesia where they all lost their lives. More infohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami)
There is a draft account opened in my bank in 1999 by a long-time client of our bank, a national of your country. He was a CEO/Engineer and business man here in Royal Kingdom of Cambodia, before he passed away on the March 12th 2005, leaving nobody as the next of kin of his account after his death.
I want to present you as the beneficiary of the deceased. I will use my position and influence in our bank to make sure they release this money to you for us to share. If I wait for days and if I do not hear from you, I shall look for another person. Kindly get back to me for more details.
Mr.Phan Yin Tong
Banking Executive
Phnom Penh Bank
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Anti-fraud resources:
