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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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Johnson Davis <johnsondavis9@gmail.com>
Reply-To: johnson_davis@usa.com
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 02:53:16 +0800
Subject: Next Of Kin
Dear Friend,
Permit me to inform you of my desire of going into business relationship
with you. I got your contact from a computerize data following my effort
searching for a trustworthy person to assist me.
I am Johnson Davis a Singaporean and Accountant with HSBC Bank Malaysia. It
is with good spirit of heart I opened up this great opportunity to you. A
deceased client of mine who died as a result of heart-related condition on
March 12th 2005. His heart condition was due to the death of all the
members of his family in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 in
Sumatra Indonesia where they all lost their lives. Currently his account of
US$10 million with us has been unclaimed due to unavailability of next of
kin/relatives to claim his estate.
Since none of the family relative is alive to claim this fund, haven waited
until now for any relative next of kin to surface in our custody; I decided
to contact you With your cooperation, I can present you as the relative
next of kin to my late client before the funds are confiscated.
You don’t need to worry yourself in this transaction. I will provide the
legal documents in your name and favor.Hence I am seeking your cooperation
and understanding to stand as the deceased next of kin to enable us claim
the inheritance before the period given elapse. If you are interested and in
agreement to work with me, get back to me with your information and address.
I will send to you all our contacts and the information you may need to
proceed. The proceedings will be shared 45% for you 45% for me and 10% for
any expenses we might incur during this process.
Best Regards,
Johnson Davis
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Anti-fraud resources:
