419 scam: "James W." <jamesjoseph@qq.com> hello

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

Home

About Us

Spam

419/Nigeria

Fraud

Contact

"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:

The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united states dollars" (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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "James W." <jamesjoseph@qq.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 11:32:24 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: hello

Good Day,

IÂ know my mail will come to you as a surprise, but never worry because i will not compel you to honor it against your will. I am the corporate legal officer of Ecobank here, I have emailed you earlier without a response. In my first email I mentioned about a deceased bank customer whose relatives I cannot get in touch with. But both of you have the same last name so it will be very easy to make you become his official next of kin. I am compelled to do this because I would not want the bank to push the late customer`sÂ funds worth Thirty Seven Million United States Dollars only (US$37,000,000.00) into the bank treasury as unclaimed inheritance. If you are interested you do write me for more details.

Yours faithfully,
Jw.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam