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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)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "segou.dekkah@voila.fr" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Dekkah Segou <dekkah.segou@gmail.com>
Reply-To: segou.dekkah@voila.fr
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2010 05:52:50 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: CAN I TRUST YOU WITH THIS OPPORTUNITY ???.
Dear Friend ,
Can I Trust You With This Opportunity?
I am the account/auditing manager in Bank of Africa (Boa), Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso . i hoped that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to impose on you for the mutual benefit of our families.
I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of (usd$9.3) million dollars to your account within 10 banking working days. this money has been dormant for years in our bank without any body claiming the fund. I want the bank to release the money to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer (Mr. John Belly from Florida, u.s.a) who died along with his entire family on November 2005 in a plane crash.
I don't want the money to go into our bank treasurer account as an abandoned fund. so this is the reason why i contacted you so that the bank can release the money to you as the next of kin to the deceased customer. please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested.
upon receipt of your reply, I will give you full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 35% of the above mentioned sum if you agree to handle this business with me. and 5% will be set aside for any expenses that may arises on the process before the fund get into your bank account such as telephone calls bills (etc). I look forward to receive your return mail with your information as follows.
fill your information.
1. Name in full:......................... .......
2. Address:...................... .................
3. Nationality:.................. .................
4. Age:.......................... ...................
5. Sex........................... ...................
6. Occupation:................... ...................
7. Marital status:....................... ...........
8. Phone......................... ...................
9. Fax:.......................... ...................
10. Your picture....................... ....
11 Your Country....................... ..........
N.b please I beg you with the name of God / Allah if you cannot finish this business do not care to Reply, because I don't want this money to hang on the way. Reply to my email here for security reason: segou.dekkah@voila.fr
thanks and have a great day.
Mr Dekkah Segou .
+226 78 83 80 60
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Anti-fraud resources:
