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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:
- "huge amount of money" (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)
- "barrister" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
- 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: "Mr. Marvin Hayes" <afmu.afmu@e-mail.ua>
Reply-To: mrmarvinhayes@rocketmail.com
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2013 19:25:18 +0800
Subject: CALL ME PLS!!!
I am Mr. Marvin Hayes, an Attorney. My client Mr. Patrick, his wife and their
only daughter died in a ghastly auto crash sometime in 2008 and before his
death he deposited huge amount of money in a Bank here in Benin Republic .
To my surprise I have received several letters from the Bank asking me to
locate any of his relations who will come and claim the funds since his next
of kin which is the wife also died. They informed me that if nobody comes to
claim the money, they will confiscate it in line with the Banking policy. All
my efforts to locate his relations have been unsuccessful.
The above reason is why I am contacting you to work with me to claim this
money since you bear the same surname and a foreigner. I will take every step
to make this project a success legally. I decided that we will share the money
when we secures it, may be invest jointly if you wish.
Please this matter is urgent so get back to me as soon as you read this mail
so I will give you more details about this.
Please call me after reading this email so we can discuss further about this :
+229 68 44 25 55
Best Wishes,
Barrister Marvin A.C Hayes
+229 68 44 25 55
Send your response to: mrmarvinhayes@vf.vc
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Anti-fraud resources:
