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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:
- "my names are " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Godwin Jonathan" <jj.gooluck@gmail.com>
Reply-To: jonatahn.godwin@mail.com
Date: Mon, 11 May 2015 15:14:40 -0700
Subject: RE:
--
Greetings to you and your family. I have emailed you earlier without a
response from you; my names are Dr Godwin Jonathan and I am an attorney
and a business adviser. One of my foreign clients (Name withheld) died
some years ago and no family member was located here in London or in his
native country.Recently I was officially informed by a bank here in London
that my deceased client has funds totaling the sum of (7.320.000.00 GBP)
Seven Million three hundred and twenty thousand British Pounds Sterling
pounds in a pension account. This fund is the pension and life assurance
payment paid to my client by an insurance company.
Once I am assured of your trust, I am willing to present you as the HEIR
of my late client authorizing you to receive this pension and life
assurance fund, there is no family member aware of this fund and I have
not been able to locate anyone for almost ten years now. Send me the
following details if you can work with me:
FULL NAMES:
CONTACT ADDRESS:
MOBILE:
COUNTRY:
OCCUPATION:
Note that I have found your contact through the chamber of commerce and my
main reason for contacting you is because of your status as a foreigner as
I want the funds to be sent abroad. Please let me know if you can work
with me as this is urgent.
Sincerely Yours,
Dr Godwin Jonathan.
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Anti-fraud resources:
