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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Grace Hansen" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <grhansen@yahoo.cn>
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:01:18 -0700
Subject: Please respond if you are reliable to do this work
Hello,
I am Mrs.Grace Hansen,an Indian Malaysian married to late politician, Mr. N. Hansen. My husband was divisional treasurer of Ipoh Barat unit
of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) in Perak state.He was brutally murdered by opposing members of his party for his straightforwardness and accountability
though the government claimed that it was a robbery attack. I was lucky to stand this gruesome murder on the night of 13th January 2009.My life has not being the same since the demise of my lovely husband. I was diagnosed with cancer of breast shortly after this accident. My health has so deteriorated that the doctors say I have few months on earth. Our only son died in 2007 after a car crash. So, I am in a lonely world of my home waiting for death to come.
I write you to seek your assistance in the security of US$8.2million deposited by my late husband with a Bank in MALAYSIA before he was killed. I am the only one with direct access and information of this deposit. I decided to seek help knowing that my days are numbered having received a call from the security company that they will turn the deposit to its treasury if I fail to present a representative of my family for the claim. I seek your assistance to be made the administrator to this inheritance. I intend to introduce you to our family attorney whom I deem very competent to guide you through this claim process. Please get back to me for more information on this inheritance. I was lead by the Almighty to send this email to you after serious thought of all emails I saw on the internet. Please treat this seriously. I have all documents of deposit of this fund to prove this legitimate to you.
I hope to hear from you soonest before I go.
Thank you.
Mrs. Grace Hansen.
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Anti-fraud resources:
