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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "here in united kingdom" (this email uses bad English)
- "god fearing " (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a "dying widow" scam.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- graceemmanuella13@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: grace emmanuella <graceemmanuella10@yahoo.pt>
Reply-To: grace emmanuella <graceemmanuella13@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 13:27:27 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: God bless you
God bless you as you devote your Time reading this mail May God bless you as you read. I am Mrs. Grace Emmanuella suffering from cancerous ailment. I was married to Mr. Benjamin Michael Emmanuella, my husband worked with Chevron / Texaco in the United Kingdom for twenty years before he died in the year 2013 during the Spanish train crash which took him away from me. copy paste the link below for news info on edition.cnn.com/2013/07/30/world/europe/spain-train-crashMy late husband deposited the sum of £ 7.8 Million (Seventeen Million Eight Hundred Thousand British Pounds) with one of the famous Bank here in United Kingdom. Recently, I'm currently in a private hospital for the past two months undergoing treatment and my Doctor told me that I have limited days to live due to the stroke and cancerous problems I'm suffering from. I have decided to donate this funds to charity Home through you and want you to use my husbands effort to fund the upkeep of widows and charities to provide succor for the less privileged once worldwide. I took this decision because I do not have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are bourgeois and very wealthy persons and I do not want my husband hard earned money to be misused so in this faith I have decided so please be Obliged to do this for GOD.
Note: you will take 30% percent out of the total funds for your personal use as compensation for doing this work of God. And the remainder 80 % percent you will use it for this good and generous work of God as I want this to be one of the last good deeds I do on earth so far before my deadly time comes, I contacted you after my prayers to God for Him to direct me to a God fearing person and I decide to contact you for the fact that I know it is God who direct me to you.
Please if you would be able to use these funds for God's work as I stated, kindly get back to me immediately hence any delay to your reply will enable me source for another person. so send me email now immediately after reading this email so that I will give you all the details as I await your urgent. Thanks and God bless for your understanding..Reply here via my private e-mail (graceemmanuella13@yahoo.com)
With God all things are possible.Your Sister in Christ,Mrs. Grace Emmanuella.
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