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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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Jim" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <afribase003@yahoo.cn>
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 13:07:42 -0000
Subject: Can we do this together?
I am a director overseeing loans and mortgages with a bank in Ghana and the bank under my supervision just concluded the yearly foreclosure on all assets used to secure loans. Deeds of trust conferring power of sale were used by the bank to recover all loans owed and unpaid mortgages. Following the legal termination of all equitable right of redemption on the assets involved, I discovered that an excess sum of $3M was generated after the sale of the assets.
This excess fund realized after foreclosure has not been remitted to the bank. I have kept this excess fund in a secret account and I need you to assist me get this funds transferred out of Ghana to your personal account in your country. You may open a new account specifically to receive this fund or use your existing account to receive it and I am offering you 40% ($1.2M) out of the money involved.
This transfer process will be carried out officially and legally while all clearances/certificates needed to safely transfer the funds to you will be procured. I will take care of the expenses needed to get this funds wired into your account.
I have years of experience in international banking and huge funds transfer so be rest assured that we will easily get this funds into your account safely and at no risk to any of us. Please get back to me so I can give you further details about how we will get this fund wired into your account.
Sincerely
Jim
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Anti-fraud resources:
