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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 sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <feedback121@hush.ai>
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 15:08:18 -0300
Subject: Beneficiary Alert....Kindly reply immediately to (email: feedback121@hush.ai ).
Dear Sir/Madam,
I hereby inform you that your fund was returned back to us (Ecobank
Nigeria Plc) because you could not complete your transaction when your
fund (US$15,200,000.00) was with an inefficient commercial bank. Your due
fund is currently with us now because we are the APPROVED bank of
settlement for the US Government/World Bank/Nigerian Government Debt
Relief Program.
A woman (Mrs. Victoria Bolstad) from Canada visited this bank today
informing us that she is your true next of kin. We are about to directly
transfer your due fund into the bank account of your next of kin (Mrs.
Victoria Bolstad) but to avoid misdirection of fund we need to confirm
from you first before we can officially effect the swift wire transfer.
Please confirm to us if we should proceed to transfer your fund into the
bank account of (Mrs. Victoria Bolstad). Kindly reply immediately to
(email: feedback121@hush.ai).
Thank you for banking with us.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. Grace Akum Donalds.
The Executive Director,
Telex Department/Corporate Banking,
Ecobank Nigeria Plc.
(Personal Banking | Corporate Banking | Ecobank Group).
***Every correspondence between the receiver of this letter and this bank
is officially filed and recorded as authorized by the Executive Board of
Directors
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Anti-fraud resources:
