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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)
- "huge sum of money" (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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Frank Dewotor" <frankdewotor888@gmail.com>
Reply-To: "Frank Dewotor" <frankdewotor@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:00:20 -0500
Subject:
Dear Friend,
I am contacting you based on trust, honest and confidentiality that you will keep this as top secret.I know it will take you by surprise to receive this information,sometime mails like this flies over the internet telling people about funds and most are not genuine.
My mail is genuine and different.There is an unclaimed huge sum of money belonging to our late customer (Arthit Chakrii) who died in Plane Crashed; Sun 16 Sept 07; Flight OG269 in Thailand, and there was no availability of next of kin and the money $49.8m is unclaimed and free for claiming by the next of kin, i would present to the paying institution.
You should read on this link to understand it:
http://www.china.org.cn/international/photos/2007-09/17/content_1224653.htm
The money is being held under a non-investment account.If you are interested will stand as the next of kin to my late client whose account is presently dormant and will present you as the next of kin to claim the fund before the period given by the Firm expire soon.We shall dicuss the percentage of shaing when you respond to this message and indicate your willingness and ready to commence with this transaction.
I am assuring you of a 100% risk free in this transaction before and after this business is concluded.If you are interested feel free to write me so that i shall inform you on the information you will need to provide to enable us claim the fund.
Expecting your earliest reply
Best regards
Mr Frank Dewotor
+233262608883
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Anti-fraud resources:
