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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)
- "here in united kingdom" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Charles Brown" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <cbrown.esq@blumail.org>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:56:12 -0800
Subject: REPLY ASAP
Dear friend,
Greetings to you and I hope this letter meets you in good health. My name is Charles Brown an attorney based here in United Kingdom and I would like to solicit for your confidence on a business deal which will be of immense benefit to both of us. Before I go on, it may interest you to know that my client and his wife along with their two children were among the victims of Boeing 737 Egyptian Airliner that crashed into the Red Sea on the 3rd day of January 2004. You can read more about the crash by visiting this website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3365769.stm
Since his death none of his relatives have come forward to claim his estate as the next of kin and the bank will not release the money unless someone applies for the claim. I would like to seek your permission to have you stand as the family representative to retrieve the funds into your account for management either in your existing establishment or other venture to be undertaken at your discretion under terms to be agreed upon. Please I need your urgent co-operation because the British banking policy and guideline stipulates that any unclaimed funds belonging to a deceased person for a period of 8years will be confiscated to the Bank treasury as an unclaimed bill and I do not want that to happen. Therefore, if you are willing to accept my proposal kindly reply my mail with your detailed information as listed below, thereafter percentages and more information will be furnished to you on my next message. 1. Private telephone/fax number. 2. Your postal/residential address. 3. Identificatio
Thank you and I humbly look forward to your response.
Yours Faithfully,
Charles Brown Esq.
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Anti-fraud resources:
