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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:
- "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)
- "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)
- "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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
- +447031949228 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: david don <at1at@mail.lt>
Reply-To: <davidd@mail.lt>
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:13:06 +0100
Subject: reply fast
Dear Sir.
My Name is David Don. and I am an investment consultant working with Bank of Scotland as an Auditor .I will be happy to work this deal out with you if you have a corporate or personal Bank Account and if you are capable to keep TOP SECRET.I need strong Assurance that you will never let me down,
if I transfer this money to your account.
During one of our periodic auditing I discovered a dormant accounts with holding balance of 25,000.000.00 (Twenty Five Million British Pounds) this
account has not been operated for the past years.The owner of this dormant account is a foreigner by name "Ed Swingle" who died on 4th Jan 2002. in a plane crash in Birmingham.you can view this CNN or BBC website for his true details.
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/01/04/england.plane/
As at this moment,I am constrained to issue more details about this business until your response is received.
1) Your Age......................
2)Your profession.....................
3) your phone numbers
4) home address............
Thank you for your time and attention and call me on +447031949228 .
Warmest regards,
David
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Anti-fraud resources:
