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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "i will like you to " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "international remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- "chief auditor" (the name of a person or institution often appearing 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. James Williams" <barr_musapius@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <mr.james_w@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 07:50:27 +0000
Subject: Very Urgent
Dear Friend,
My name is James Williams, I am from Ghana.
I am Forensic Accountant Auditor. As Director International
Remittance Department and also the Chief Auditor with a security
company. I discovered Millions of dollars that have been over invoice
from a contract during my auditing.
The funds originated from Foreign Contract Award with foreign
contractors who executed the contracts most of them have been fully
paid. I discovered the funds from the Data Base System while auditing.
I am here for audit and to make sure that all outstanding payment to
all foreign beneficiaries contractors receives their pending funds. I
am seeking your assistance for you to stand as the foreign
contractor/beneficiary so that the funds will be release to you.
If you are interested in receiving the funds as the foreign
beneficiary for our both sharing, I will like you to send to me the
followings,
1. Your full name
2. Your address
3. Your Mobile telephone number
4. Your Occupation
Let me know you are interested to do the business with me in order
for you to send me the above information and I will give you the full
details and I will start to secure the require legal documents that will
back up the immediate release of the funds to you. Please let me know
if you can be able to handle the Millions of dollars and with top
secret? Looking forward for your reply
Yours faithfully,
James Williams
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