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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "please indicate your interest" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united states 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)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "remain blessed" (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a "dying widow" scam.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- awagbabo2015@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Awa Gbabo <awagbabo2015@outlook.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2017 14:51:49 +0000
Subject: From Mrs.Awa Gbabo.
From Mrs.Awa Gbabo.
I am sending you this private email to make a passionate appeal to you for assistance, I am Mrs.Awa Gbabo. from Abidjan -Cote d.Ivoire, and I am married to Mr.Yaya Gbabo. who before his death was a Real-Estate Broker and Crude Oil Merchant in the province of Africa. We were married for 26 years without a child. Before the death of my husband we were both born again Christians.
My Husband left the sum of US$17.500 million United States Dollars in a fix/suspense account in one of the prime bank here. Recently, my Doctor told
me that I would not exceed more than five more months due to lung cancer (NSCLC) problem. Having known my condition I decided to seek for your kind
assistance to transfer my inherited fund into your account and you will use it to train my adopted son who is 16yrs and also use 20% of the fund to assist
the less privileged children in your country, while 15% of the total will be for your compensation in respect of your integrity and devotion for this
project. You will take my adopted son Joseph as your God child and brought him up in a good and decent manner with what my late husband left behind.
I took this decision to contact you because of my condition and for the facts that my husband relatives wants to size everything and throw my adopted son
out of the inheritance. So I want to use this little time I have to achieve this arm before joining my ancestors.
Please indicate your interest and willingness in this transaction by writing back to me .I want your maximum cooperation and keep this as confidential for
security reasons. I am sincerely waiting for your kind and urgent response as soon as your receive this mail. Email Address, awagbabo2015@gmail.com
Thanks and Remain Blessed,
Sincerely Yours
Mrs.Awa Gbabo.
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