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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)
- "barrister" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447031864550 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dagogo Thomas" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <thomasdagogo02@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:59:22 -0700
Subject: RESEND THE INFORMATION
Dear Friend,
Sorry for the delay in responding to your mail. The reason was that I was very busy working out all modalities we need to make this transaction a success.
Please I wish to inform you that your response to my first mail came blank except your email so I decided to let you know that I have already promise the bank in spain that the informations they needed for the NEXT of KIN to claim this fund belonging to my late client. Please do not let them know that you are in no way related to her because already I have concluded that with them and they believed me owing to the fact that I was the lawyer to my client till her death.
Be also informed that my client till her death was a single mother with a boy and they both died on their way back from mosque in a car accident in 2007 and right now the bank upon hearing about her death requested that I should bring someone to claim this fund as her next of kin.
I will guide you in any area necessary as long as you promise to remain sincere till the end of this transaction without dennying me the moment you confirm this fund in your account.
Please furnish me with the below information.
1, Your Full Name..........
2, Complete account details, you can equally open a new account that has a zero amount for this fund.
3, Phone number............
4, A copy of your identification if any.
Call me on: +447031864550
Regards
Barrister Dagogo Thomas
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Anti-fraud resources:
