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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united states 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)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "diplomatic delivery" ("diplomats" who perform deliveries of cash or other valuables to you only exist in 419 scams)
- "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- "lome togo" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Tariq Jameel <ourodjemila86@gmail.com>
Date:
Subject:
My name is Tariq Jameel; I work with Ecobank Lome Togo as the manager
Foreign remittance department.
I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we have never met
before, but you don't need to be worried as I am using the only secured and
confidential medium available to seek your foreign assistance in a
business. I am contacting you independently of my investigation and no one
is informed of this communication. I need your urgent assistance in
transferring the sum of ($25.3 million United States dollars.) immediately
to you through bank to bank transfer or through diplomatic delivery.
The money has been here in our Bank lying dormant for Eight good years
now without anybody coming for the claim of it. I want to release the money
to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer (the account owner)
who died along with his supposed NEXT OF KIN since August 2015.
The Banking ethics here does not allow such money to stay more than 8
years, because the money will be recalled to the Bank treasury as unclaimed
funds.
Upon receipt of your reply indicating your interest in this transaction I
send you the full details on how the business will be executed.
Please keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not
interested.
Regards,
Tariq Jameel
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Anti-fraud resources:
