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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:
- "million british pounds" (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)
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- 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.
- +447045755708 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- 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.
- mralfredwilliam021@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Alfred William" <mr_udeh@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: "Mr. Alfred William" <mralfredwilliam021@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 01:52:56 -0700
Subject: Greeting
Greeting,
My Name is Mr. Alfred William, an investment consultant working here in London with a Bank. I will be happy to work this deal out with you if you have a corporate or personal Bank account Information. I need strong assurance that you will never let me down once this money transferred into your account.
During one of our periodic auditing I discovered a dormant account with holding balance of £30,000.000.00 (Thirty Million British Pounds Sterling) on further investigation I discovered that this account belongs to Late Mr. Cecil Rhodes, who unfortunately died without a [Heir/WILL] hence the money is floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing. I am constrained to issue more details about this business until your response is received.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Mr. Alfred William
+44 70457 55708
my email: mralfredwilliam021@yahoo.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
