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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- 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.
- jcampbel33@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Patrick" <patrickm@bankersmail.com>
Reply-To: jcampbel33@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:01:04 -0500
Subject: Re: Read Properly And Get Back To Me
Dear Friend,
I am contacting you based on maximum trust on a business that will
fetch us the
sum of thirty three million and five hundred thousand dollars if you accept my
offer.
I work with a bank in west Africa and in my bank, we release the funds of late
customers to their appointed or known next of kins every six years.
There is an
account which I am an account officer/manager to and the customer died in a
hostage taking years back. He has no known or appointed relative when
he opened
the account and the head office has instructed all account officers to submit
the names of all keen to their accounts whose owners are late.
It is based on this that I am contacting you, so that we can have a deal and I
submit your data as the next of kin to the account and we will share the funds
50%-50% once the bank releases the funds to you. There is no single risk
involved as I am the one who can approve or disapprove any name for the bank
since I am the account officer/manager and have direct access to the
account file.
Get back to me with your private contact telephone number for further
discussion.
NB: All replies to my private email: jcampbel33@gmail.com
Mr. Patrick Madu
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Anti-fraud resources:
