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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)
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: MR PHILIP FROM ENGLAND <lindadonpeldro@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: philipuk1@live.com
Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2012 04:30:22 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Greetings From Mr Philip
Dear friend,
I know that this message will come to you as a surprise. I am Mr.philip from the Accounting and Auditing Manager bank of Asia
I hoped that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our families. I need your urgent assistance in claiming the sum of (usd$10.5m) million to your account within 10 to 14 banking days. This money has been dormant for years in security company in Asia I want the security comany to release the money to you as (the owner of the money) this money belong to Mr Hussain ahmed a rich and famous iraq business man who was killed by an America sodier during the iraq war.but he was arest on his way back in america by the united nation he is now in jail for corruption
I don't want the money to go into security company treasurer account as an abandoned fund. So this is the reason why I contacted you, so that you can travel down to asia to claim this fund, and i we give you all guild line how to claim this money because i know every information about the money,so that the company can release the money to you as the next of kin of Mr.Hussain ahmed Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not upon receipt of your reply, I will give you full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 35% of the above mentioned sum if you agree to handle this business with me? And 10% will be set aside for any expenses that warrant on the process before the fund get into your country such as telephone calls bills
Best Regards,
Mr.Philip
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Anti-fraud resources:
