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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: "Mustapha Dangote" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ubabankplcnig@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 17:17:12 +0100
Subject: The true position of your fund
Attention!!
Dear Sir/Ma
I am Mr.Mustapha Dangote, director “foreign operations” United Bank for Africa. I write this email to tell you the true position of your financial matter with our bank and also the reason why you have not received your fund value at US$2.5M. I have this opportunity to relate with you because the director of foreign operations went for one (1) month leave and all power has been vested on me to handle foreign payments. But as I was going through foreign payment files, I find out that the reason why it has been difficult for you to receive your fund is because of the method of payment applied by the director of foreign operations to transfer your fund and of which such method of payment is not safe for you because it is not done within our bank alone.
The director passed your fund payment notice to the Central Control Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance and also office of the Accountant General of the Federation for authentication and for this reason you are subject to pay huge amount of fee before the transfer of your fund will be concluded. But since the power has been vested on me to handle foreign payments, I have nothing to gain should your fund continue to remain in the custody of our bank.Therefore, be assured to receive your fund through the easiest and quickest method.
I will give more details upon receipt of your response.
Regards,
Mr. Mustapha Dangote
Assistant Director
Foreign Operations
United Bank for Africa
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Anti-fraud resources:
