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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)
- "will come to you as a surprise" (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)
- "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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Lulumohamed <lulumohamed002@gmail.com>
Reply-To: lulumohamed1960@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 7 May 2010 19:15:01 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: From Mr Lulu Mohamed
From Mr Lulu Mohamed
Dear
Friend,
I know that this message will come to you as a surprise. I AM
A BILL
AND
EXCHANGE MANAGER TO THE FOREIGN REMITTANCE DIRECTOR
BOA BANK
HERE IN
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO. I Hope that you will not expose or
betray
this
trust and confident that i am about to repose on you for the mutual
benefit
of our both families.
I need your urgent assistance in
transferring
the sum of ($25.5)million to
your account within 14 banking days.
This money
has been dormant for years in
our Bank without claim. I want the
bank to
release the money to you as the
nearest person to our deceased
customer, the
owner of the account died along
with his supposed next of kin in an
air
crash since July 31st
2000.
I don't want the money to go into
our
Bank treasurer 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 i need your urgent reply so that i will give
you the full
details
information and the bank application letter wich you have
to fill
and aply
to the bank as the next of kin to the deceased customer and
delete
it if you
are not interested.
your information
1. name in
full.............
2. address...................
3.
age..........................
4. occupation.............
5. phone
number.......
BEST REGARD
Mr.Lulu Mohamed.
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