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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Johnson King" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <aarondinck@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2017 22:21:36 -0700
Subject: Pertinent information ...
Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms,
My name is Johnson King, the principal attorney of my law firm., Johnson King & Co. A deceased client of mine Mr. Henry died in 2010 and left a sum little above US$ 28 million in his account here in Unity Bank Plc. Normally banking procedures requires that the bank declares the account forfeitable and transfer the proceeds to the Registry of Unclaimed Property for government use after 8 years from the time of the death of the diseased client.
The present situation made me to contact you given that you and my deceased client share the same last name and nationality which made it favourably disposed towards this proposals to present you as the cestui que trust and administrator of the account. It may also interest you to know that the transaction will be executed within the ambit of law and nothing shall be done outside of it.If you are not familiar with estate and probate measures, I shall send further information to you concerning these once i get a positive response. Whereas We will discuss the ratios succinctly and promote them in written signed agreement before commencement.
I wish to submit that I would expect nothing less but honesty and transparency. I will uncover to you further information on the matter in our following communications. If this business interests you kindly revert with your direct phone number for further exhaustive phone talk.
I look forward to having a good business relationship with you.
Yours sincerely,
Johnson King & Co
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Anti-fraud resources:
