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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:
- "please indicate your interest" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "your urgent reply" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: SANDRA BAMBA <sandra.bamba13@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: sandrabamba10@hotmail.fr
Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 09:40:11 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Establish this noble project.
Establish this noble project.
I am Mrs Sandra Bamba 62 years old from CI. Please i need your urgent assistance to receive my inheritance fund left for me in a bank here by my late husband Mr. Johnson Bamba. I am suffering from pancreatic cancer of the lung for past three years now and my doctors have detected that i have few months to leave. Now, I need your ultimate cooperation to transfer this fund to your care to distribute it among charity organisations such as motherless babies home, orphanage homes and churches.
Please indicate your interest by replying to this mail with your contact details to enable me formally introduce you to the bank where my husband deposited the fund. as soon as i received your mail with your full contact address i will send to you the contact of the bank so that they will transfer this fund to your account to establish this noble project. I prayed over this project before contacting you that God shall direct me to a good and trustworthy fellow that has fear of God and i equally prayed against deceivers and scams that full in the internet nowadays.
The amount involve is US$6.7M. Six million seven hundred thousand dollars.
I will be expecting your urgent reply.
May God bless you
Mrs Sandra Bamba.
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Anti-fraud resources:
