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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 friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Financial.MD.Wang" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <wangalber.fin@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 20:23:57 +0700
Subject: Dear Friend
Dear Friend,
My name is Mr Wang Albert. I am sorry for this interruption. I have no other way to reach you than these ways please accept my apology.I am the managing Director of a financial firm here in South East Asia.In my department i discovered an abandoned sum which belongs to one of our foreign customer who i was his account manager.I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder but unfortunately we learnt that he died along with his entire family in tsunami which happened in Indonesia and his supposed next of kin died along side with him at the tsunami disaster leaving nobody behind to claim the fund.We cannot release this fund unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our guidelines and laws but if nobody applies as next of kin, government will pocket the money.So i will need to present you as the next of kin so that this money can be transfer to you as his next of kin for
us to share.If you are interested
Thanks,
Mr Wang Albert.
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Anti-fraud resources:
