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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:
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: jamesokoh@gmail.com
Reply-To: jamesokoh82@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2018 21:50:47 +0100
Subject: Greetings
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL I am James Okoh and I work with a reputable financial=
institution I am contacting you because I have a profitable and classified=
monetary transaction that involves millions of united states dollars, whic=
h I believe might be of interest to you. I expect and count on you to handl=
e it with utmost commitment. I have a customer, name withheld for security =
reason who bears the same last name with you that made a fixed deposit of f=
unds in 2012 with our financial institution and the due date for claims was=
2017, unfortunately my customer is late and he did not mention his next of=
kin to me before his death. Since the death of my customer, I have written=
several letters to his embassy with an intent to locate any of his extende=
d relatives whom shall be claimants/beneficiaries of his abandoned personal=
estate and all such efforts have been to no avail. However, going by the r=
ecent publications by the Trustee bank, I fear a likely winding up proceedi=
ngs in the coming months. I am seeking your co-operation to partner with me=
by providing an overseas account so that i can transfer the funds to your =
nominated account with my position as the account officer to the deceased. =
This deal is 100% risk free and nobody will ever come for these funds excep=
t me that know the information. If we agree to work together i will need yo=
ur account details where these funds will be transferred into. With your ac=
count details and your full name i will apply on your behalf as the account=
officer to the deceased before his death for the release of the deposit to=
you as the next of kin to the deceased. I assure you that this transaction=
will not take more than 21 working days for the bank to approve these fund=
s to your account. All i need is your full commitment. Secondly i will shar=
e the money 50/50 with you once the funds get to your account. I will come =
over to your country for my own share of the money. I hope you will assist =
me in the area of real estate investment because I will like to invest some=
funds in properties when I come over. Please kindly respond ASAP if you ar=
e interested with my proposal so that we can start the process as soon as p=
ossible and send to me your telephone number to enable us discuss further o=
n this transaction when necessary. I expect your prompt response Yours Fait=
hfully James Okoh
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