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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 friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million 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)
- "hundred thousand united state 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)
- "waiting for your urgent response" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Tibo Ahmed <ahmeddiallob2@gmail.com>
Reply-To: tiboahmeds@yandex.com
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2023 01:07:16 +0000
Subject: urgent response.
Dear Friend,
With due respect to your person and much sincerity of purpose,I make
this contact with you as I believe that you can be of great assistance
to me. My name is Mr.Tibo Ahmed.. from Ouagadougou Burkina Faso West
Africa. Presently I work in the United Bank for Africa (U.B.A) as
telex manager.
I am about to retire from active Bank service to start a new life but
I am skeptical to reveal this particular secret to a stranger. You
must assure me that everything will be handled confidentially because
we are not going to suffer again in life.
It has been 10 years now that most of the greedy African Politicians
used our bank to launder money overseas through the help of their
Political advisers. Most of the funds which they transferred out of
the shores of Africa were gold and oil money that was Supposed to have
been used to develop the continent.
Their Political advisers always inflated the amounts before transfer
to foreign accounts so I also used the opportunity to divert part of
the funds hence I am aware that there is no official trace of how much
was transferred as all the accounts used for such transfers were being
closed after transfer. I acted as the Bank Officer to most of the
politicians and when I discovered that they where using me to succeed
in their greedy act.
I also cleaned some of their banking records from the Bank files and
no one cared to ask me because the money was too much for them to
control. They laundered over $5b Dollars during the process .
As I am sending this message to you, I was able to divert Fourteen
million five hundred thousand united state dollars ($14.5m) to an
escrow account belonging to no one in the bank. The bank is anxious
now to know who the beneficiary to the funds is because they have made
a lot of profits with the funds.
It is more than Eight years now and most of the politicians are no
longer using our bank to transfer funds overseas. The ($14.5m) Million
Dollars has been laying waste but I don''t want to retire from the
bank without transferring the funds to a foreign account to enable me
share the proceeds with the receiver.The money will be shared 60% for
me and 40% for you.
There is no one coming to ask you about the funds because I secured
everything. I only want you to assist me by providing a bank account
where the funds can be transferred. You are not to face any
difficulties or legal implications as I am going to handle the
Transfer personally. If you are capable of receiving the funds, do let
me know immediately to enable me give you a detailed information on
what to do.
For me, I have not stolen the money from anyone because the other
people that took the whole money did not face any problems. This is my
chance also to grab my own but you must keep the details of the funds
secret to avoid any leakages as no one in the bank knows about the
funds.
Waiting for your urgent response.
Yours Faithfully,
Mr. Tibo Ahmed.
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