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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Marclear Russell" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <femistyles@femistyle.net>
Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 21:27:50 -0700
Subject: LETTER.
Good Day
I am a legal practitioner; I saw your contact and profile I decided that you could co-operate with me in this business proposition. Lately, I received a call from the bank notifying me that my late client deposited a sum of(?10.5m)British Pounds Sterling (name withheld since this is our first letter to you).
I was contacted base on information they got from some documents that back-up the depositions in which my name was mentioned as his personal Attorney. I contacted you because you have the same identity with our client and therefore can present you as the beneficiary tot he inheritance since there is no written will, our legal services aim to provide our private clients with a complete service. my late client who died along with his entire family in the Gulf Air Flight Crashes in Persian Gulf near Bahrain Aired August 23, 2000 -2:50p.m. ET as reported on
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/23/bn.08.html
Since you have the same last name with him the proceeds of his estate would be paid to you as his next of kin or the legitimate beneficiary. All the legal documents to back up your claim as my clients next-of-kin would be provided by me. The most important thing is your honest co-operation towards this proposal. This would be done under a legitimate arrangement that would protect you from any breach of the law.
Best regards
Mr. Marclear Russell
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Anti-fraud resources:
