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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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 sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "contact me immediately" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- mr_john.kofi@mail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: INFO <agentmorganloeloe@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mr_john.kofi@mail.com
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 10:21:57 -0800
Subject: Hello
Dear Sir/Madam.
My name is Mr. John Kofi the sitting Bank manager of Spintex Branch
Office in (GTB) Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, I hope that you will not
expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on
you for the mutual benefit of our both families.
I need your urgent assistance to received this already loaded MASTER
DEBIT CARD sum of ($885,000.00) US dollars from our Head Office.This
money has been dormant for 2 years now in our Bank without claim. I
want you contact our Bank Head Office to release this Already loaded
DEBIT MASTER CARD to you as the nearest person to our deceased
customer (the owner of the account) who died along with his supposed
next of kin in an air crash since July 2012.
I don't want the money to go into our Bank treasurer as an abandoned
fund So this is the reason why I contacted you so that the bank can
release the money to you as the next of kin to the deceased customer.
(Dr. George Brumley ) Please I would like you to keep this proposal as
a top secret and delete it if you are not interested.
If you are interested to work with me so that we can achieve this
fund,you should go a head to ask our Bank Head office to send the
DEBIT MASTER CARD and secret Pin Code number to you at your designated
address as the next of Kin to the deceased Customer so you start
making withdrawal with your MASTER CARD IN ANY VISA CARD MACHINE
Wordlwide.
Here is the sharing ratio; you will get 50% as your share, while I get
50% for me.
You can reach me with my private telephone contact number +233
545512813 or (mr_john.kofi@mail.com) for further discussion of this
fund transaction.
If you can help me, please contact me immediately with the required
information listed below:
1. Your full name: 2. Your contact cell phone number: 3. Your age:
4. Your sex:5.. Your occupations: 6. Your country and city and a
scan copy of your international passport or driving license for
identification.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. John Kofi
(Branch Manager Gtbank Spintex branch Office)
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Anti-fraud resources:
