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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:
- "inheritance funds" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "reinettevdmerwe@live.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
Fraud email example:
From: "Ms. Reinette Van Der Merwe" <reinettemerwe@gmail.com>
Reply-To: reinettevdmerwe@live.com
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 22:53:11 +0000
Subject: Good News
Greeting from Reinette, it obvious we don't know each other before but I
choose to contact you because of the urgency and huge amount involve in
this business. I discovered an abandon account that belong to late Mr. Alan
Williams who dead with his next of kin in a plane crash in Oct 2005.
Fortunately 90 days noticed was mandated to provide his next of kin
unless the funds would be consificated to the South Africa Government
Treasury as unclaimed inheritance funds. So i decided to contact you for
you to stand as the next of kin to late Mr. Alan Williams.
If you are interested to work with me call/email for more information
+27790460775, email: reinettevdmerwe@live.com
Yours sincerely,
Ms. Reinette van der Merwe
Chief Internal Auditor at Absa Banking Group
South African
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Anti-fraud resources:
