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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:
- "mariam abacha" (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: Mariam Abacha <mariamabacha@uu027.net>
Reply-To: marian_abacha@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2016 09:37:05 +0800
Subject: URGENT PLEASE.....
My Name is Mariam Abacha, the long surviving wife of the late former
head of states in the military regime of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
I wish to sincerely ask for your assistance in securing a part of the
remaining amount of money that was left for me and my children by my
late husband.
I am getting very old and my children will need these funds when i am
gone but because of the current administration and leadership in my
country, my children may not be free to claim the funds so we have all
decided to look for a foreigner who has no ties with us and is not
related with us in any way to help us secure the funds and when that is
successful done, one of my workers will come and meet with your for
disbursement and sharing of the funds.
The money is a sum of us$56 million and its presently safe some were i
will disclose to you on your acceptance to assist in moving and securing
the fund.
I will give you more details upon your response and acceptance and i
will let you know how we will go about it.
The most important thing now is to have mercy on a poor widow like me
and see reasons to help me and God will surely bless you and off course
you will be adequately compensated with a certain percentage of the
funds.
Thanks and i wait to hear from you soon,
Mariam Abacha
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