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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)
- "your urgent reply" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "contact me immediately" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Ibrahim Musa <mribrahim.musa@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <mr.musai@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 11:07:03 +0000
Subject: Attn: Sir/ Madam.
Dear Friend,
I am a staff working with the Bank Of Africa here in Ouagadougou,Burkina Faso. I want you to help me in receiving the sum of Twenty Seven Million Two Hundred thousand Dollars ($27,200,000) into your Bank Account.
This fund was deposited in the bank here by a foreign customer who died accidentally alongside with his entire family members many years ago. Nobody had asked for this fund till now. If you are interested,you have to provide an account where the fund will be remitted because i am highly interested to secure this money from the Bank.
Please you can contact me immediately to start the transfer process.Further details about the fund and this transaction will be given to you upon the receipt of your response. Please understand that we have to hurry-up our actions because the bank authority here has plans to redeposit this fund into the treasury of the Central Government as unclaimed fund if nobody applies for this fund after the next bank audit which will begin here soon. I await your urgent reply.
Yours faithfully.Mr Ibrahim Musa.
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Anti-fraud resources:
