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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:
- "huge amount of money" (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)
- "million united states dollars" (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)
- This email message is a orphan 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.
- 233267877135vanesapatrick21@yahoo.com (Yahoo; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: Vanesa Patrick <vanesapatrick@yahoo.pt>
Reply-To: Vanesa Patrick <vanesapatrick21@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 16:06:14 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: RE
Greetings,
I am Ms.Vanesa Alves the only Daughter of Chief and Mrs. Patrick Alves my father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant based here in Ivory Coast,before he was shot toÂ
death by unknown gunmen(rebels) during the political crisis/war few years ago.
I ran to the neighboring country Ghana with my mother who later died of high blood pressure and heart failure in the hospital of Ghana in 2013, before the death of myÂ
mother she gave me a document of sum huge amount of money that was deposited in one of the banks in Ghana which I was the next of kin of the said fund. The amountÂ
involve is the sum of ($2 Million United States Dollars) left in a suspense account in a bank in Accra Ghana West Africa.My mother told me before her untimely death that I should seek for a trust worthy foreign partner in a country of my choice where I will transfer this money and use itÂ
for investment purpose especially in the area of real estate or hotel management. I am really seeking for your kind assistance. To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education. Every information regarding this transaction is already perfected, so (if you are interested) you should please email me with the following information:
1 Full Name2 Address3.Telephone numbers so that we can communicating privately.Should it be that you are not interested in this proposal, please just disregard my email and never let anyone know about it for my security. Thanks and God bless you.Best Regards,From Ms.Vanesa Patrick+233267877135vanesapatrick21@yahoo.com
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