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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:
- "i will like you to " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "the consignment" (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)
- "consignment " (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 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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Madam Mulic Kabore <madammulickabore@gmail.com>
Reply-To: madam.mulic.kabore@voila.fr
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 02:21:57 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Hello My Dear
My name is Madam Mulic, i came from the Republic of Burkina Faso.I have a proposal for you,i know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we never met before, this however is not mandatory nor will I in any manner compel you to honor it against your WILL. It's just my urgent need for foreign business associate that made me to contact you for this transaction. There is this huge amount of Six million five hundred thousand United States dollars which my late husband deposited, awaiting for claim before he was assassinated by unknown gunmen.My main purpose of sending you this message is because of the way I found you and perhaps trustworthy to give you this priority of shipping this consignment to any address that you think is very secure and safe in your country. It will interest you to note that you stand to receive 40% of the money that's inside the consignment after successful conclusion of the transaction. Please i will like you to contact
the Security and Finance Firm, indicating to the Firm that you are authorize by me,to call as the foreign business Associate of my late husband to make inquires on how the consignment could be shipped to your destination.I thank you immensely for your co-operation and understanding.Yours SincerelyMadam Mulic Kabore.
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