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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Deborah Yale <deborahyale@outlook.com>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2016 10:57:35 +0000
Subject: My WILL/TESTAMENT...Reply as soon as possible
Dearest belove,
I pray this email gets to you in good health. My name is Mrs. Deborah Yale. I am 67yrs old and a widow from Abidjan. I am presently in the hospital where I am about to undergo one of my several surgery operation for cancer. I was married to late Chief Yale and we did not have any child till his death. My reason for contacting you is to make a donation with the deposit which my late husband has in a bank in Benin Republic about $3.5 USD. This fund was original meant to finance Oil production in Kuwa. Unfortunately my husband died without accomplishing the project. Now that I am old and very sick in the hospital I wish to utilize the fund to help the less privileged because the doctors has confirmed I have few months to live; hence I need a reliable someone to bequeath this fund to him for charity purpose. If you can handle this on my behalf you should reply immediately so I will instruct the bank to release the deposit to you for the purpose.I look forward to hear from you.Remain blessed.Mrs. Deborah Yale
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Anti-fraud resources:
