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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Alhaji Outta Akim <alhajiakim1bf@gmail.com>
Reply-To: alhaji.akim1@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 11:59:43 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Eid Mubarak
Eid Mubarak and may the peace of gracious Allah be with you and
your family, please I have a problem which I need a help from you and
decided to write you for help
My Name is Alhaji Ouattara Akim; I am a banker by profession. I am
from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa. My reason of contacting
you is to transfer an abandoned fund of $8.3M to your account if you
agree with me.
The account owner of the fund is died since 2000 with his Next Of Kin
in car accident. I want to present you to the bank as the Next of
Kin/beneficiary of this fund.
Kindly Get back to me for more details if you are interested to
receive the money.
Regards,
Jazzack Allah
Alhaji Ouattara Akim
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Anti-fraud resources:
