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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:
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Office File Mr Kafi Eric <office-----file273@att.net>
Reply-To: kafieric@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:05:43 -0800 (PST)
Subject: HELLO
Hello,
I am Mr. Eric Kafi, the cordinator of Agency for Finance England Development (AFeD) here in the United Kingdom. I contacted you as a matter of urgency for a transaction of a very considerable benefit which is a sum of money that i discovered during my personal search in the BANK OF AFRICA where i served as exchange and fund recovery officer before retirement. This abandoned sum of money was in account that has not been operational for the past eight (8) years and it belongs to a businessman who was a customer of the BANK OF AFRICA who died in a plane crash.
I contacted you so that both of us can collaborate to claim this fund valued at one million nine hundred and seventy thousand united state dollars (1.970.000.00$) and transfer it into a foriegn bank account of yours. I want you to contact me if you can be trusted and are capable of doing this transaction with your personal data such as.
Full names.........
Age.................
Occupation........
Marital status...........
Country of origin..........
Email address...........
Telephone number...........
I want to assure you that you have no risk to fear about in this affair so do not dwell on any imagination that this transaction may put you or your family into any danger.
I shall wait for your humble reply before i furnish you with full detail on how it will work for our own good.
Thank you,
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Eric KAFI
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Anti-fraud resources:
