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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)
- "confidential business" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "chief auditor" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Vivian Egobia" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <m.anya1@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Wed, 6 May 2015 21:04:41 -0300
Subject: STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL
Dear Friend,
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL
I am Mrs. Vivian Egobia Chief auditor with a bank. I am contacting you based on one of our late customer who unfortunately died on Air India
Express, Boeing 737-800 arriving from Dubai crashed Saturday 22nd May 2010 as it overshot a runway while trying to land in southern India.
Please you can Visit the Websites below for confirmation:
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article435569.ece
http://www.airsafe.com/plane-crash/air-india-express-flight-812-boeing-737-mangalore-india.htm
Since the death of our customer my bank have made several inquiries to locate his relations to come up for the inheritance claim, without any success.
I came across your name and contact on the course of my personal search for the supposed next of kin so I decided to contact you for this project. I am contacting you to assist in securing the wealth left behind by our late customer to avoid been confiscated or declared
unserviceable by the bank and thereby declared state funds.
The board of Directors of the bank have been unsuccessful in locating the next of kin to our late customer. it's on this note that I seek your consent to present you as the relation/next of kin so that the proceed of this deposit can be released into your account. The amount
deposited is the sum of Twelve million Five Dollars (12.5M). I guarantee that this transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement which will protect you from any breach of the law.
Indicate your interest to this offer by furnishing me with your information viz:
Full name
Occupation
Address
Telephone number
Id card/ Driver's license
Please get back to me asap with your full details
Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Vivian Egobia
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Anti-fraud resources:
