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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr.Barnard Otti" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ottibarnard@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2016 00:54:48 +0200
Subject: COMPLIMENT OF THE SEASON !
Hello.
I am the Coordinator Contract award Department of the Nigerian national petroleum corporation (NNPC). My office is also saddled with the responsibility of screening,categorization and prioritization of projects embarked upon by NNPC as well as feasibility studies for selected projects and supervising the projects consultants involved. A breakdown of the fiscal expenditure by this office as at the end of the last fiscal quarter of 2015 indicates that the NNPC paid out a whooping sum of US$2.36Billion to successful contract beneficiaries. The NNPC is now compiling beneficiaries to be paid at this first fiscal quarter of 2016
I deliberately over-inflated the contract value of the various contracts awarded with the sum of $15.5m and I want to use your name as one of the contractor and beneficiaries of the contract payment to move the over-inflated sum of $15.5m to your account, I must assure you that I will obtain every paper work to back up this contract payment to you as one of the contractor and beneficiaries of the executed contract of $15.5m with NNPC.
On the transfer of the contract sum to your account,you will get 50% of the money. if it will be of your interest to work with me for our mutual benefit, let me know so I can tell you more about this.
My best regards.
Mr.Barnard Otti
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Anti-fraud resources:
