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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "transaction is risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- mralex_dun1@sify.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: MRALEX DUN1 <mralexdun001@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: mralex_dun1@sify.com
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:29:37 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: ATTENTION: PLEASE
Dear Sir,
I Am Mr Alex Dun, Deputy Chief Accountant in NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Company. we have a floating($25.5m) accrued
from excess valuation of contracts awarded to foreign contractors in the past i and my colleague who are preview to this project now wants to Transfer this money to your country.note that this transaction is risk free as we have perfected all that will see this through Your share will be 30%; we will own 60% and the rest 10% will be set aside for ancillary expenses ..
If you agree with our proposal, kindly send your bank particulars where you would want the funds to be transfered into. Note that you are expected to keep this correspondence strictly confidential hence all communication shall be by email to: (mralex_dun1@sify.com) Awaiting your earliest response
Signed
Alex Dun
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Anti-fraud resources:
