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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:
- "i will like you to " (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)
- "international remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- "chief auditor" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr Sung Nyon Kim" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <nmrsung@yahoo.de>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 10:59:47 +0100
Subject: From Mr Sung Nyon Kim!
Dear Sir
I am a Mr Sung Nyon Kim, I am from Republic of Korea. I am Forensic Accountant Auditor. As the Director International Remittance Department and also the Chief Auditor with a bank I discovered $5M that have been over invoice from a contract during my auditing.
The funds originated from Foreign Contract Award with foreign contractors who executed the contracts most of them have been fully paid. I discovered the funds from the Data Base System while auditing. I am here for audit and to make sure that all outstanding payment to all Foreign beneficiaries contractors receive their pending funds.
I am seeking your assistance for you to stand as the Foreign contractor/beneficiary so that the funds will be release to you.
If you are interested in receiving the funds as the foreign beneficiary for our both sharing,I will like you to send to me the followings,
1. Your full name
2. Your address
3. Your Mobile telephone number
4. Your Occupation
Let me know you are interested to do the business with me in order for you to send me the above information and I will give you the full details and I will start to secure the require legal documents that will back up the immediate release of the funds to you.
Please let me know if you can be able to handle the $5M and with top secret?
Looking forward for your reply
Yours faithfully,
Mr Sung Nyon Kim
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Anti-fraud resources:
