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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 sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Maria<fox@fox.com.br>
Reply-To: marialisbeth4@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2013 02:13:10 -0500
Subject: Business Proposal
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Maria Lisbeth, the branch manager of HSBC Bank in Germany. In my review last week i found an abandon safe deposit trunk box owned by a late client of the bank who is an oil investor,This deposit contain an amount of $9,000,000.00 EUROS (Nine Million EUROS in Cash) with no beneficiary name attached to it.I made a research on this client of ours and discovered he had no kids or near by family that knows anything concerning this funds.Also according to the details on the bank pass history on the deposit is 10 years since the last review on the account.Therefore i will like to propose a deal with you by making you an offer of 35% percent of the entire amount mentioned.The deal is making you the beneficiary and legitimate owner of the funds.I will prepare an authorized documentation on your behave send it to you to send it to the bank and make your claim and also tell the bank you want to have the funds sent to you which ever way they could.As the bank branch manage my duty is to support your claim and make sure the transaction gets to you safely.Please this is urgent so get back to me as soon as you can if really interested.Thank you.
Best regard Maria.
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