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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:
- "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "affidavit of claim" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "million dollars" (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)
- "affidavit " (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "abuja" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "senatorehigiee.uzamere@ymail.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- "senatorehigiee.uzamere@ymail.com" (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: =?UTF-8?Q?Senator_Ehigie_E=2e_Uzamere?= <info@senate.org> (may be fake)
Reply-To: senatorehigiee.uzamere@ymail.com
Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2013 13:13:52 -0500
Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?Re=3a_Your_Payment_Details=2e?=
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
FEDERAL REPUBLICE OF NIGERIA
SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN PAYMENT
GARKI -ABUJA NIGERIA
>From the Desk Of:
SENATOR EHIGIE E. UZAMERE
SENATE CHAIRMAN ON
FOREIGN AND LOCAL DEBT PAYMENTS
ABUJA - NIGERIA
E-MAIL: senatorehigiee.uzamere@ymail.com
Hello
RE: APPROVAL OF $5.5 MILLION PART PAYMENT
I am Senator Ehigie E. Uzamere the chairman of foreign and local debts. I have been instructed by the office of the President of Nigeria to find out before the end of this month, why the transfer of your fund have not been credited to your account, after instructions has been passed to all various Government quarters that all over due payments should be released as a lot of petitions by beneficiary’s has been received by the office of the president.
Following this report, I decided to carry out some investigations which lead to my finding out that some officials has decided to use this opportunity to milk so many innocent people of their money instead of having their funds transferred to them and at the same time trying to divert the funds to another account using the same information of the beneficiary or fake information and different account to receive the funds. They milk the beneficiary’s of their money to use it for their own selfish act and at the end they end up not been able to.
Some even present them selves as the central bank governor and even the finance minister but still they will not be able to achieve their greedy act just milking money from the original beneficiary’s. In this regards, the President of the federation has instructed that we personally look into this payments and make sure that all payments should be granted a part payment of $5.5million dollars as the budget for the year has been released and some amount has been mapped out for the payments.
However I will give my assistance to make sure your file is in order for payment as two people came for the claim of the fund and submitted account saying that you are not well and no longer interested in the fund which I know is the hand work of this same people in question. But be noted that you must obtain an Affidavit of claim first.
You are hereby advised to get back to this office with the following information for further verification and clarification as well.
1) Your full names and current residence address
2) Your direct phone numbers
3) Your full banking information (bank name, address, account number and routing number with bank swift code if any)
4) Your photo page of your international passport or driver’s license.
Upon the receiving this information’s or response from you formal application will be sent on your behalf to the office of the president and necessary approvals for this part payment will be released to you. You can send me an email to (senatorehigiee.uzamere@ymail.com) will be highly appreciated to enable your part payment to be released to your account. Be duly informed again as stated above that you are required to obtain an Affidavit of Claim before we can proceed with the payment.
Yours faithfully
Senator Ehigie E. Uzamere
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