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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.
- pwatara@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Peter Watara" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <pwatara@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 06:51:19 +0100
Subject: Greetings
Greetings
I'm not sure you received my previous messages, now this information needs urgent attention hence I'm writing you once again.
I'm contacting you for a personal investigation concerning our deceased client who bears the same surname with you.
He died in a fatal car accident with his family in 2005, and the management of this bank is at the verge of closing his account due to it's dormant status.
I am his personal account officer with our bank and have been issued a notice to provide an extended next of kin of our deceased client or have the account confiscated within the next 21banking days. I'm constrained to give detailed information at this point for security reasons
And I'm making this effort because I will be disappointed to see the labour of the deceased been confiscated.kindly contact me Via my Private Email:pwatara@yahoo.com.hk
So kindly get back to me with your full name and address for appraisal.
Best regards,
Mr Peter Watara
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Anti-fraud resources:
