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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:
- "million 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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr.Djimailla Ndanta" <djidanta@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dantadjimailla@ibibo.com
Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 07:52:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: ATTENTIVELY PLEASE
Hello,
I may not be morally right to
contact you but as a person I thought greatly about it and have come to this conclusion which I am about
to share with you.
INTRODUCTION:I am the Credit Manager
Bank of Africa Ouagadougou Burkina Faso and in one way or the other was hoping
you will cooperate with me as a partner in a project of transferring an
abandoned fund of a late customer of the bank worth of $18,000,000 (Eighteen
Million Dollars US).
This will be disbursed or shared
between the both of us in these percentages, 55% to me and 35% to you while 10%
will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the process of
transferring.
I await for your response so that we
can commence on this project as soon as possible.
Regards
Mr. Ndanta Djimailla
Credit Manager Bank of Africa
Ouagadougou
Burkina Faso.
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Anti-fraud resources:
