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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 friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr Galladimah H. Omar" <mr.galladimah@sify.com>
Reply-To: ghazomar2000@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 14:45:09 -0800 (PST)
Subject: I APPRECIATE YOUR RESPONSE.
Dear friend,
I am the General Audit Manager, in the foreign accounts Department of our bank. I have the sum of 29.850m USD to transfer to your account. This fund originally belonged to one of our bank customer who died of a motor accident here in Burkina Faso along the old capital expressway in the year 2002.
He was a successful businessman and respected customer to our bank. Late Mr. Oscar George Hulge was a Gold & Diamond dealer who exploited the abundant GOLD DUST and DIAMOND resources here, and exported it from here to his numerous customers in South and Eastern Africa countries and other parts of Europe.
I propose 35% percent to you for your participation in assistance to enable us get this fund out of this bank. The fund has been in use by the directors over the years to give loans to private investors for which the interest has been shared among themselves. I will give more detail of the transfer process as soon as I receive your response. Your full name, address and phone number.
Thanks,
Mr Galladimah Hazeem Omar
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Anti-fraud resources:
