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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: "Mr. David Hexter" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <kevinkm@yandex.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2023 09:00:09 +0200
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL. (NEXT OF KIN WORTH 19.9 MILLION EURO)
So sorry for my contact to you in this form. I'm David Hexter. I have a proposal for you. If it will be of interest to you.
I am a financial adviser to an independent woman who has several investments across the globe. I have been managing her finances for several years now. But she passed away on February 10th, 2023 in an auto accident. I have tried severally to reach out to any of the relatives but to no avail.
I came across your name during my search on the internet and you bear the same surname. So I decided to contact you and propose to you to stand as the next of kin to my late client to claim the sum of €19.9 million euro which we are going to share together.
Why I am doing this is because as the account manager, it is my responsibility to bring forth the next of kin for the claim to avoid the account going dormant.
Kindly get back to me if this is of your interest. I will give you more detail on how to proceed.
I wait for your response.
Regards,
Mr. David Hexter
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Anti-fraud resources:
