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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "chief auditor" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "ecowas " (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: Oscar Martins <oscarmartins196@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2021 16:55:27 -0700
Subject: Re
Dear Friend.
I am Mr. Oscar Martins, I'm Chief auditor in Ecowas bank,I have an
abandoned fund of €5.5 million Euros to transfer to you ,which we are
going to share 50:50 . You will only stand as the next of kin to my late
client who bears the same surname as you; the fund was deposited in our
bank so many years back by my late client who died with his entire family
in an Auto Accident in 2010. I want to invite you as a foreigner to stand
as the next of kin to the deceased client, so that we will claim the
deposited fund and share it between the two of us 50: 50 each. Kindly
reply me back for more details
Waiting to hear from you soon
Best Regards,
Mr . Oscar Martins
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Anti-fraud resources:
