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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)
- "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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Paul Barnett" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <PaulBarnett@asia.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 15:40:18 +0700
Subject: Reply.
Dear Friend,
My Name is Mr. Paul Barnett I work with Asia Bank.I need your urgent assistance in
transferring the sum of $5,250,000.USD to you while we share 50% 50%.This money has been
dormant in our Bank without claim due to the owner of this fund died along with his family in
plane crash.
I want our bank to release these funds to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer
while I come over to your country to share this fund with you as soon as you confirm this
fund into your account and ask me to come over.
I don't want the money to go into our Bank treasure as an abandoned fund. So this is the
reason why I contacted you so that our bank will release this money to you as the next of kin
to the deceased customer.
Kindly provide below details for processing the documentation.
(1) Full Name:
(2) Address details:
(3) Occupation:
(4) Private Mobile number:
Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not
interesting. I consider sending this mail to you from my personal email for security reasons.
Best regards,
Mr. Paul Barnett
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Anti-fraud resources:
