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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: louisc2gass@gmail.com
Reply-To: llouischarlesgass2017@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2017 14:12:14 -0300
Subject: Urgent!!!
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am Mr Louis Charles Gass and i work with Guaranty Trust Bank (South
Africa) Limited. There Is an account opened with my bank in 2009 and
since 2016 nobody has operated on this account. After going through some
files in the records, I discovered that this account belongs to Mr.
Philip Wood, an American miner and geologist by profession who died in
the Malaysia Airline MH370 cash of March 2014. If I do not remit this
money out urgently it would be forfeited for nothing as no other person
knows about this account or anything concerning it and the account has
no other beneficiary. This account has a balance of USD36M in it.
I am only contacting you as a foreigner because the bank is going to
welcome you as a foreigner who has correct information about the
account, which I will give to you before we proceed. I need your full
co-operation to make this work fine. If you are capable to handle such
an amount in strict confidence and trust we will achieve this money
immediately, I will also use my position to influence approvals and
immediate onward transfer of this money to your account for sharing and
further investments. You are entitled to 25% of the total sum.On
response to this email Let me have he following information for
processing of payment in your favour.
Your full name?
Address of resident?
Phone number?
Age & Marital statues?
Bank account ?
I look forward to your earliest repons.
Sincerely Yours,
Mr Louis Charles Gass.
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