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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:
- "dear beloved," (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united state 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)
- "your urgent reply" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "federal republic of benin" (Benin, Cameroon, etc. are no Federal Republics, unlike Nigeria where this type of scam was invented)
- This email message is a "dying widow" scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Jefferson Kinsman" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrsjk1976@yahoo.fr>
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:07:58 +0200
Subject: Very Important Message
Dear Beloved,
I am Mrs.Jefferson Kinsman from New Zealand. I am married to Dr. Mike Williams who worked with Chevron/Texaco in Egypt for over Twenty Years before he died in the year 2002.
We were married for Twenty-Seven years without a child, he died during one of the riots in the Egypt.He was held hostage and slain to death by the protesting youths of the region. Before his death we were both born again Christians.
Since his death I decided not to Re-marry. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of (US$30 MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) with a bank in the federal republic of Benin and now the management of the bank have just wrote me to come forward to receive the money or rather issue a letter of Authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf if I can not come over because of mu present health condition at hand.
I am presently with my laptop in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment for cancer of the lungs,I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a few months to live. It is my last wish to see that this money is invested and at the end of every year distributed among charity organization and for your compensation, as soon as the money enter your account take 20% of the total money, while the 80% will before the project.
I took the decision because I know that there are a lot of poor people suffering from different kind of disease and nobody to come to their aid. With God all things are possible .As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the bank were my late husbands deposited the money.
Get back to me I await your urgent reply.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Jefferson Kinsman
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