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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:
- "million us dollars" (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)
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Desmond D. Hayes" <j.jacobs26@upcmail.nl>
Reply-To: david_hayes31@aol.com
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 21:32:36 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Info.
Good day,
I am Dave.H.Desmond,former audit officer to one of the banks in South Africa.
sorry for barging into your privacy and you will find out that it was
the right
decision to take after making considerations and our review of your profile
which prompted contact originally.
After our audit job conclusion,we will start up with the dormant accounts were
certain account funded for contracts were found to have few cash which were
unclaimed amount to:-US$4M (Four Million US Dollars).All legitimate
documentation are secured but requires trusted and dependable
business/individual to transfer the funds in their company/names.Its risk free
and fail proof as no action involved in this process is contrary to government
laws of the different market regions.We will split on transfer completion
%50/50 or otherwise stated pending on parties involved.
I am confident you can handle it if we are able to come to an
agreement, Please
note that my proposal is legit and risk free. I will be looking
forward to hear
from you.
Details will come afterwards.
Thanks,
Desmond D. Hayes.
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Anti-fraud resources:
