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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:
- "to your nominated bank account" (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)
- "utmost confidentiality" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Solomon Kato <mrsesther48@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Mr Solomon Kato <mrkatos@yahoo.fr>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 11:14:20 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Compliment of the day.
 Compliment of the day.   Â
 I am Mr. Solomon Kato of the Ecobank in Burkina Faso – West Africa. Although you might be apprehensive about my email as we have not met before. I am in the auditing department with Ecobank Burkina Faso; during my recent auditing I discovered some amount of money valued (USD$10.5)Ten million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollar belong to a late customer, Who Died Along With His Family In Kenya Plane Crash 2003.You Can Confirm The Geniuses Of The Deceased death. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenya.crash/index.html I am writing to seek your assistance in working with me, so that I can present you to my bank, as the rightful beneficiary/next of kin to our late customer.Â
 This however is not mandatory nor will I in any manner compel you to honour against your will. I would like you to read on and consider the value I offer. Once the funds have been transferred to your nominated bank account we shall then share in the ratio of 50% for me, 50% for you. I want to give you 100% assurance that this transaction is also risk free one, all I need from you is your maximum support and co-operation for a smooth and hitch free transfer of funds into your account.I advice please treat this business with utmost confidentiality. If interested please Kindly respond with your data information for onward guideline & proceeding.
Sincerely,
Mr. Solomon Kato
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