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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:
- "bimabima@w.cn" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: raphael bima <test@shgzw.gov.cn>
Reply-To: <bimabima1@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:10:10 -0800
Subject: help me
Sir,
I am humblely and very appologize to contact in the internet. i want you to helping me. if not because of the money but please as a child that you can train up to become use to the whole world because i want to be a doctor after i training and save the life of the people.
I am Raphael Bima , a Sierra-Leone citizen. I am stay at the refugee camp in Accra- Ghana.
My father was diamond and gold dealer in West Africa during the war the rebel killing him and my mother and big sister. I was come with my big brother to Refugee Camp in Ghana but he die the death after he was sick and we have no money to buy good medicine and he die and I cry every day because Now I is alone and before my father die he deposit Three Million Euro with a bank in Spain with my name as the next of Kin.
I have contact the bank to claim the money but them refuse because I am a minor and also did not allow me to claim the money because of my refugee status.They advice me a find a foreign beneficiary and appoint him as my trustee so that they can transfer the money by swift transfer into his bank account abroad. Now am want you to help me to claim the money from the Bank by me appointing you as my trustee so that the bank will transfer the money to your account in your country.
After that you will help me to come to your country and start to go to school and I want to be a doctor.
REPLY ME BACK TO MY PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS bimabima@w.cn
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