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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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr.Richie Lai" <atosaya@onetoronto.com>
Reply-To: lairichie6@gmail.com
Date: 23 Jun 2019 01:48:04 -0700
Subject: Proposal
Hello,
My name is Richie Lai, a Client Relations officer at one of
Canada’s foremost Cryptocurrency exchange platforms. This is a
private and confidential message from me to you and I request
that it be treated as such.
I am contacting you in respect of an urgent issue regarding a bit
coin wallet belonging to a deceased account holder. The Bit coin
(925 BTC) which was valued at over 7.2 Million USD was sold and
converted to cash at the request of the late account holder for
onward deposit to an account to be advised by her. We waited for
months for info on the bank account for the deposit but never got
a
feedback. upon inquiry, it was confirmed that she passed on after
a cancer related ailment.
At a meeting held by my management on the matter, it was resolved
that unless a Next of Kin or any relative comes forward for claim
on
or before 30th of August 2019 ( which I know would ordinarily not
be possible) the whole funds would be converted back to Bit Coin
and
becomes part of the Company's portfolio.
With the above in mind, I decided to quickly reach out to you so
that you can apply to my company for claim of this fund. Rest
assured that this is a straight forward process and no risks
involved whatsoever. Start to finish of the process with fund
deposited in your nominated bank account can be achieved within a
space of 5 banking days or less. All that I require from you is
full corporation and sincerity.
I will await your reply and indication of interest to furnish you
with further details including sharing ratio.
Best Regards
Richie Lai
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Anti-fraud resources:
