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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:
- "hundred thousand united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "very confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "here in united kingdom" (this email uses bad English)
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Rahul Gandhi" <mr.michaeldeng1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Mr.RahulGandhi1@emailn.eu
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2020 03:01:17 +0100
Subject: Dear Valued Customer,
Dear Valued Customer,
How are you today? You will be surprise as i am writing this letter to you
because you might not know me but i am a senior Banker here in London. I
came across your file here in the Bank after been transferred from our head
office to replace the foreign operation director in our regional office who
is now on retirement After going through your file, i find out that you
have an outstanding payment here in the Bank to the sum of Ten Million,
five hundred thousand United States Dollars with an accrued interest
agreement of 5%, which has been in effect for the past years. I also went
further to verify the account and it came to my notice that the account is
now dormant. Considering the new law passed by the United Kingdom
Government parliament on dormant accounts,i decided to move this fund out
from the dormant account to avoid Government authorities making use of this
fund. I have fully secured this fund on your behalf in an Escrow account
and this fund was fully secured against government seizure. I decided to
move this fund out of your dormant online account with us because of the
United Kingdom Government statement and implementation of the new law to
use the fund in dormant accounts here in United Kingdom to carry out social
services in the Country like funding of voluntary groups and community
projects. For you can read the past news on the link below which is now
under implementation:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4017381.stm
This is why you should respond urgently for more guideline on how this fund
will get to you safely and also keep the detail very confidential because i
don’t want anything that will dent my name or have my good reputation
destroyed here in the Bank. I am doing this to help you receive this fund
because i don’t want government to claim this fund after seeing all you
have suffered in the hand of corrupt official in the past to claim this
fund. Delaying is dangerous at this time.and as well give me a direct
number to reach you quickly. Also email me on my direct email (
Mr.RahulGandhi1@emailn.eu ) for guideline on how i can assist you move this
fund to your country of origin.
Looking forward to hearing from you as
quickly as possible.
Mr. Rahul Gandhi
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Anti-fraud resources:
