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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "may come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "to your nominated bank account" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Koko <hubu.koko@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2011 21:26:00 +0100 (BST)
Subject: faithfully proposal Blessing stand for the claim and follow up my instruction
Dear friend,
I know that this letter may come to you as a surprise, I must apologize for taking some of your valuable time to explain a proposal that I believe will be of utmost benefit to us. I am manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of a bank. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of 17.000.000.00 MILLION U.S.A dollars in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in air plane crash in Parison Tuseday 25 July2000.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/851209.stm
Since the bank got information about his death we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release the fund unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim and our banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remains unclaimed after six years, such money will be moved into the banking treasurer as unclaimed fund.
The request of a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the deceased customer was a foreigner and be Burkina cannot stand as next of kin. 25% of the total money will be for you as a foreign partner while 5% will be set aside to cover any expenses that might be incurred during the process oftransfering the fund to your nominated bank account.If you're willing to handle this deal with me kind get back me with your Private telephone and fax numbers for easy communication/your personal picture to enable me know whom I’m dealing with. I will send to you the application form which you will apply directly to the bank.
Note’s demand the lightest trust from you to keep this business strictly confidential for security reasons as you may know that the bank don't know that I am the one who contacted you to stand for this claim.
Thank
Hubu Koko
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