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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:
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a "dying widow" scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs.Susan Wilbert" <susanwilbert176@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ssnwlbrt@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2022 12:35:37 +0200
Subject: Hi Dear
Dear Child of God,
My name is Mrs.Susan wilbert from Canada and i was married to late Mr.
Williams wilbert who worked with an oil company here in Abidjan Cote
d'Ivoire before he died in a car accident on his way back home from work.
My husband and I did not have any children and i'm 65 Years old. When my
late husband was alive he had a fixed deposit of (3.5 Million Euros) three
million five hundred thousand Euros) with a Bank.
Presently this money is still with the bank and the bank management just
wrote me as the beneficiary to come and claim the money or rather issue a
letter of authority to someone to receive the money on my behalf. I am
presently in the hospital where I have been undergoing treatment for cancer
of the lungs. I have since lost my ability to talk and my personal doctor
have informed me that I have just few months to live, so I think the best
thing to do is to use the money for charity purposes. I want a person who
is trustworthy that I will make the new beneficiary to my late husband's
funds in the bank so that he/she can get the money and utilize 70% of this
money to fund churches, orphanages and widows around the world And 30% of
this money will be for your time and effort
I want you to use this money for charity organizations, orphanages, widows
and other people that are in need. I took this decision because I don't
have any child that will inherit this money. Moreover, my husband's
relatives are not close to me since I developed cancer illness and it had
been their wish to see me dead so as to enable them to inherit my husband’s
wealth hence we have no Child. These people are not worthy of this
inheritance. This is why I am taking this decision to contact you and
donate this fund to you for the charity works.
As soon as I receive your reply I will give you the contact details of the
Bank. I hope to hear from you as soon as possible
Yours sister in christ
Mrs.Susan
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