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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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)
- "farida waziri" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- This email message is a "New Partner from Paraguay" scam.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- vivianobasi17@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Frank Terry <frankterry1223@yahoo.com.ph>
Reply-To: vivianobasi17@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2011 20:42:11 +0800 (SGT)
Subject: I appreciated your efforts to me
I appreciated your efforts to me
Dear Friend,
I'm happy to inform you about my success in getting the fund transferred
to a Swiss Account with the cooperation of a new partner from Paraguay
who is an international business man.
Presently I'm in Paraguay for investment projects with my own share of
the total sum. Meanwhile, I did not forget your past efforts and
attempts to assist me in transferring those funds despite that it failed
us some how.
Now contact my secretary, her contact is:
Name: Miss. Vivian Obasi
Email: (vivianobasi17@gmail.com)
Ask her to send you the total 850.000.00 (Eight Hundred and Fifty
Thousand US Dollars) which I kept for your compensation for all the past
efforts and attempts to assist me in this matter. I appreciated your
efforts at that time very much. So feel free and get in touched with my
secretary Miss. Vivian Obasi and instruct her where to send the amount
to you.
Please do let me know immediately you receive it so that we can share
the joy after all the sufferness at that time. In the moment, I am very
busy here because of the investment projects which me and the new
partner are having at hand.
Finally, remember that I had forwarded instruction to my secretary on
your behalf to receive that money, so feel free to get in touch with
Miss. Vivian Obasi and she will send the bank draft to you without any
delay.
With best regards
Mrs. Farida Waziri
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