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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "your urgent reply" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "i got your email address from " (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- This email message is a "dying widow" scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Adeela Batal <abatal@ymail.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 11:54:27 -0300
Subject: urgent!!!
Donation of Mrs Adeela Batal.
Let me first of all inform you, I got your email address from a mail
Directory and decided to mail you for a permission to go ahead. I am Mrs.
Adeela Batal, a widow to late Baasim Batal from Kuwait, who worked with
Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before dying in 2007. We
married for twenty years without a child. He died after a brief illness that
lasted only four days. my late husband deposited a sum of (two million five
hundred dollars, USD) in the bank in suspense account which i inherited and
this money is still with the Bank and the management just Wrote me as the
beneficiary to come forward to claim the fund but because of my condition i
have decided that you use this fund for charity purpose.
I am presently in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment Cancer
of the lungs and being that i have lost my ability to talk secondly my
doctors have told me that I have only a few months to live so I think the
best thing to do is to use the money for charity purposes. I want a person
who is trustworthy to utilize 60% of this money to fund for charity
purposes. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated and
Keep transaction confidential till such a time this funds get to your
Custody. This is to ensure that nothing jeopardizes my last wish on Earth. I
await your urgent reply. May almighty God bless you and your family.
Regards, Mrs. Adeela Batal.
________________________________________________
Message sent using UebiMiau 2.7.9
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Anti-fraud resources:
