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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Barry Morgan <bm632056@gmail.com>
Reply-To: bonillafranklin713@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2021 14:55:23 +0100
Subject: Investment
Dear
Greetings.
I am a private solicitor based here in London-UK. There is an
abandoned Account in our bank with a credit balance of US$85.5 Million
and this account has not been operated on for the past five years.
The main reason why I contacted you is because I have been given legal
permission by my late client's bank here in my country to provide
someone to inherit his fund in the bank's custody according to their
banking inheritance policy.
The custodian bank here wants to send this fund to the government
treasury if I fail to present someone within a stipulated time, and I
do not want this to happen, so all I seek is your honest co-operation
so I can present you for a legal approval in the bank as the next of
kin to my late client so there is nothing for you to worry about that.
I will need your direct phone number/s for Communication Purpose.
I await your immediate response then I will give you more information.
Regards and God Bless.
Barry Morgan
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Anti-fraud resources:
