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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- celestinamahmoud@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: thomas.kwasa@uonbi.ac.ke
Reply-To: celestinamahmoud@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2017 16:02:08 +0300
Subject: Important message{Free volunteer for humanity sake}
I am a close friend and was one of her caregiver some years back to
Liliane Bettencourt who died few weeks back. Heiress of the cosmetics firm
L'Oreal, Liliane Bettencourt, who had an estimated net worth of 33bn
euros.she gave me Banking Co-Ordinates of her funds of 26,043,639.00 Euros
and had mandated me to ensure i look for someone who will be willing to
extend humanitarian act around the globe and promised to do this before i
went to work for a professor in Nairobi. who later made me a secretary.
but at the moment. i am in Spain and really in a bad condition now but
needs to fulfill her wish but i am down due to my recent condition.i just
heard about the news of her death. I decided to donate this fund to a
church,organisation or good person that will utilise this money in good
faith according to her mandate to me years back which i am helpless at
the moment.I took this decision because I don't have any child that will
inherit this money. I kept this deposit secret till date, this is why I am
taking this decision.I don't think I will need any telephone communication
in this regard because of the confidentiality of this transfer. Upon your
reply I shall give you the contact of the bank. I will also issue a letter
of authorisation to the bank that will prove you the present beneficiary
of this money. Reply to my confidential email address
celestinamahmoud@gmail.com
Await your response.
Sent by care giver as instructed: Dr Thomas
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The University of Nairobi is ISO 9001:2008 certified.
Website: http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uonbi.ac.ke
Twitter: @uonbi https://twitter.com/uonbi
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