419 scam: "Joseph Anderson"<janderson@associates.com> Reply Very Urgent

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- "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)
- "very confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
This email message is a next of kin scam.
This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- josephandersonservice@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Joseph Anderson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <josephandersonservice@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2024 01:37:38 -0700
Subject: Reply Very Urgent

Dear Friend

I am Mr.Joseph Anderson,a banker here in SPAIN . I write you this very confidential proposal in good faith hoping that I will rely on you. In 2010, Mr. Othman M. Ayaso who hails from your country as his place of origin/birth, made a fixed deposit, valued at ? 12,200,000.00 (Twelve million Two hundred thousand Euros) with our bank in SPAIN. He was an oil merchant and an Engineering contractor.

He came here in SPAIN for an Engineering work exploration from your country before he made the deposit through his Swiss account in Switzerland! I was his account officer. Unfortunately, while on a business trip, he died in a deadly Tsunami earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011 in Sendai Japan that killed many people.
The management of our bank has been sourcing for a means to reach him so as to ascertain if he will want to roll over the Deposit or have the contract sum withdrawn, when I discovered that this will happen, I learnt of his death, so I have tried to think up a procedure to preserve this fund and use the proceed for charity. Our Bank Managing director has been trying to find out from me the information about this account and the owner, but I have kept it closed to my heart because I know that if they become aware of his death, they will corner the funds for themselves and for their private use and leave me with nothing.

Therefore, I am seeking your co-operation to present you as the one to benefit from his fund at his death. So that my bank headquarters will pay the funds to you. I have done enough inside the bank arrangement and I only have to put in your details into the information network in the bank computers database and reflect you as his next of kin to the deceased Othman M. Ayaso.
This is a risk free operation as long as no one else besides you knows about this. I immensely request for your optimum honesty and cooperation and Let me know your mind on this, and please do treat this information as Top secret. We shall go over the details once I receive your urgent response .
Please observe this instruction religiously. Please, again, note I am a family man with a Daughter. I send you this mail not without a measure of doubt as to what the consequences could be for me if my Bank finds out about my secret plan.Please let this be a top secret
between us.
The sharing formula will be 45% for me, 45% for you and then 10% to Charity.

Best Regards,
Mr.Joseph Anderson
E-mail : josephandersonservice@gmail.com

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam