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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- 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.
- prgyd@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Zong" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <prgyd@aim.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011 01:08:28 +0200
Subject: Xin Holding
I am contacting you in respect of our deceased client and the investments he made in our asset management institution.
On the 20th of November 2003, our deceased client deposited the sum of Four Millions United States Dollars under the portfolio management of our institution for 4 Years and the deposit matured on 20th of November 2007 with over 98% growth which amounts to a total of Seven Millions Nine Hundred and Twenty Thousand United States Dollars.
Our client died in December 2007 at the age of 81 at the time he was finalizing the divorce procedures of his 4 decade's long marriage. Our client did not state his next of kin or beneficiary to his huge estate because he was the only child of his parents and had no kids and all our efforts to locate his immediate family have been unsuccessful.
The main reason of contacting you is for you to stand in as a successor to the huge estate of our late client. I am guaranteeing you that this would be done under a legitimate arrangement that will protect all parties involved from any breach of the law if I can have your absolute trust and confidentiality.
If you find yourself able to work with me on this, get back with me for further details on how to proceed with the following details: Your Full Names and Address: Your Date and Place of Birth and Your Private Telephone Details. The above information's should be forwarded to the following email address for privacy sake: prgyd@aim.com
If you are not interested in my proposal, kindly delete this mail for security reasons and I will not contact you again.
Awaiting your urgent response.
C Zong
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Anti-fraud resources:
