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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:
- "trust is our watchword" (the question is not whether they can trust you, but whether you have any reason to trust this person or anyone this person tells you to contact)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "UNITED STATES BANK" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <gimark100@yahoo.co.th>
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 02:25:36 +0200
Subject: BE THE NEXT OF KIN
Good Day ,
I am a Senior staff of reputable and respected bank in United States of America That I would want to disclose the name of Bank for now. I am writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to both of us. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $60.5million (Sixty million five hundred thousand United States Dollar) in the bank in United States of America in an account that belongs to one of our client Late Mr. Morris , that has the same last with you an American who unfortunately lost his life in the Car crashed on January 2005, including his wife and only daughter.
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin or relatives to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.
The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money remained after five years the money will be transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed funds.
We agreed that 40% of this money would be for you as partner, while the balance will be for me. Please be honest to me and trust is our watchword in this transaction.Note this transaction is confidential and risk free. As soon as you receive this mail you should contact me by return mail or Strickly SEND SMS ONLY ON THIS TEL /NUMBER: (360) 492 1531 FOR SECURITY REASONS
Best regards,
Giraldi Mark
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Anti-fraud resources:
