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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)
- "million us dollars" (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)
- "waiting for your urgent response" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: MR MUSSAALI <mussaaliooooo9@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mralixx111@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2021 07:08:52 -0700
Subject: Urgent Reply
Dear Friend,
I am Mr. Mussa Ali, the head of the file department of Bank of
Africa (B.O.A) herein Burkina Faso / Ouagadougou. In my department we
discovered an abandoned sum of (US$18 million US Dollars) in an
account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along
with his family in a plane crash.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this
business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of
kin or relation to the deceased for the safety and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it. I agree that 45% of this
money will be for you, while 55% would be for me. Then after the money
has been transferred into your account, I will visit your country for
an investment under your kind control.
You have to contact my Bank directly as the real next of kin of this
deceased account with the next of kin application form. You have to
send me your information below to enable me to use it and get you a
next of kin application form from the bank, so that you will contact
the Bank for the transfer of this money into your account.
Your Full Name_______________________
Your Home Address____________________
Your Age ___________________
Your Handset Number____________________
Your Occupation _______________________
I am waiting for your urgent response to enable us to proceed further
for the transfer.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Mussa Ali.
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