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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:
- "trunk box" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "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: Joice Raphael <joice.raphael1@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: <joice.raphael@yahoo.fr>
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:11:17 +0000
Subject: Remain Bless.
--
Dear One,
Greetings, I know you may be surprise to receive my mail due to the
fact
that we haven't known each other well, I belieive we will know each
other
better soon.
Please I am contacting you due to the political problem in my country
that
have turned me into becoming a widow over night. my husband was one of
the
cocoa board directors in Bouake the northern part of Cote D'Ivoire
under
the administration of the former president Laurent Gbagbo but the rebel
groups have taken over the leadership and killed my husband after
forcing
him to hand over the documents in his possession, When he was alive and
under house arest he instructed that I should look for a foreigner who
will
assist me to claim a trunk box containing the sum of ($10m) which he
deposited in one of the security companies in Abidjan so that I being
his
wife and his next of kin will escape and relocate with our only son of
almost 3 years old to another country that he was not sure they will
leave
him alive of which they really killed him.
Please this is my main reason of contacting you now so, I plead that
you
indicate your kind and godly interest of helping us out fast before
they
track us down because the present government are killing the former
president's group silently, I will forward the contact details of the
security company for you to contact them as my foreign beneficiary.
Presently we are in Abidjan but does not expose ourselves.Hope to hear
from
you as soon as possible.
Mrs Joice Raphael.
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