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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: JOSEPH KUMA <joseph.kuma4@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: josephkuma01@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 15:10:52 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: From Mr Joseph Kuma
>From Mr Joseph Kuma
Greetings and best regards..
I am Mr.JOSEPH KUMA and 41 years old,from Cote D'Ivoire.I am the foreign payment consolidation manager of (SGBCI) Societe generale Bank de Cote D'Ivoire .I find your contact in a business directory and I decide to contact you immediately for friendship and business of mutual benefit for you and me.
My branch made excess profit of $'3,500.000.00 during the last fiscal year, which I placed on Non-Resident account without a beneficiary in our bank since I have already submitted 2009 approved end of the year report to our head office.
In essence I need your trust to stand as the original depositor of this fund, so that the fund will be transferred to your company or private account immediately.
I will use my position to influence this project in other to expedite the transfer by our bank head office to your foreign bank account . I intend to part with 30% of this fund to you as gratification while 70% shall be for me.
This transaction is purely legal and practically no risks involve, it will be a bank-to-bank transfer.
I await your positive reply for more detail.
I end here with much love and also with much respect to you.
Best Regards
Mr Joseph Kuma
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Anti-fraud resources:
