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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- ",000,000" (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)
- 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.
- hsbcconsula@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Tom Cannon" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hsbcconsula@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 19 May 2012 15:20:00 -0400
Subject: Can i trust you with this business proposal.
Hello I am M Hello I am Mr. Tom Cannon a banker with the HSBC bank London. I was the personal/secret banker of the former Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan who was charged with being responsible for the disappearance or misappropriation of 658,000,000 GBP (790 million Euros) in military procurement funds.
Mr. Hazem Shaalan was able to deposit part of this money in my bank with the help of a late Mr. Dane a private contractor with Halliburton. Mr. Dane had a private sewerage company in Iraq and with his help former Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan was able to siphon money out of Iraq to the sum of 5,000,000 GBP (7 million Euros) into this bank.
With my help he was able to keep these large amounts under the radar. Mr. Dane has been dead for a long time now and the former Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan is at large with an Interpol arrest warrant on his head. The reason that I am telling you all this my friend is that I am looking for a trust worthy person who will assist me in moving this fund out of this bank. There is no next of kin to the account where this money is deposited and there is no chance Mr. Hazem Shaalan will come back to claim this money because the contractor who deposited this money in secrecy is dead.
If you will help me this is what I want the both of us to do immediately, I will present you as the next of kin to the account I have all documents and files which will cover you up fully as the next of kin.
Kindly view this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7444083.stm and I will explain further when i get a response from you. Please reply through my private email: hsbcconsula@yahoo.com.
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