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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:
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Oman Salif <omansalif8@gmail.com>
Reply-To: oman.salif7@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2014 22:40:29 +0100
Subject: Assalamu`Alaikum.
Assalamu`Alaikum.
My Name is Mr. Oman Salif. I am a banker by profession. I'm from
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa.
I know my message will come to you as a surprise. Don't worry I was
totally convinced to write you, My reason for contacting you is to
transfer an abandoned $20.5M to your account
I want the money to release to you as the nearest person to our
deceased customer I want you to apply as a next of kin to the late
customer .i doesn't want the money to go into our bank treasury as an
abandoned fund. So this is the reason why I contacted you, so that my
bank will release the money to you as the nearest person to the
deceased customer.
Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and
delete if you are not interested. Upon receipt of your reply, I will
send you full details on how the business will be executed and also
note that you will have 40% of the above mentioned sum if you agree to
transact the business with me.
Thanks and hoping to hear from you soon.
Mr. Oman Salif.
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Anti-fraud resources:
