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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Thomas Walkman <thomaswalkmanlaw@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2017 19:58:35 +0100
Subject: Re: Fund Transfer
Dear Friend,
I am Mr. Thomas Walkman, a banker by profession with experience of
over 17 years now and my reason for contacting you is purely on secret
business deal.
A sum of $10.5M (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) was
deposited in our Bank by our late customer who died without declaring
any next of kin before his death in 2006. The money has been unclaimed
since then due to unavailability of next of kin/relatives to claim his
fund.
So, I seek your cooperation to stand as the next of kin to enable us
claim the inheritance before the period given by the bank elapse. I
assure you that this transaction will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law both in
your country and here in UK once the fund is transferred to your bank
account.
Please kindly get back to me if you interested for more information
Thanks
Thomas Walkman
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Anti-fraud resources:
