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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)
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr.Richard Amah <r.amh@gmail.com>
Reply-To: amah.richard87@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 07:50:59 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: From Mr.Richard Amah.
Complement of the day.
Dear friend
I know that my correspondence to you may appear as a surprise to you since ewe have not meet or communicate before but I have taking the decision to contact you on this regards after going through your profile to see if we can keep to ourselves by giving ourselves a step of trial. However, it's just my urgent need for foreign associate that leads me to you for this mutual benefit able transaction if we can keep to us. I am a banker by profession from Ghana and currently holding the post of Director Auditing and Accounting unit of the bank.
I discovered a left over sum of ($18.4 million). These sum was on the name of our deceased customer late Thomas Burson, who died on (Egypt Air line 990), along with his family on a plane crash you can verify through the following web site http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/502503.stm.
I am inviting you for a business deal with my position in the bank here we will claim the funds then share within us in the ratio of 50/50 as a brotherhood. This deal is 100% risk free as far as we can keep the confidentiality of it to ourselves and I will make sure that every modalities that will carry us along will be worked out.
If you are interested in my business proposal. further details on how to proceed to the next stage to archive our aim will be forwarded to you as soon as I receive your return mail along with the following information's.
1.NAME IN FULL:.
2.ADDRESS:.
3.NATIONALITY:.
4.AGE:.
5.SEX...
6.OCCUPATION:.
7.PRIVATE PHONE NO..
8.PRIVATE FAX NO:.
I will be expecting hearing from you urgently.
Regards.
Richard Amah
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Anti-fraud resources:
