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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:
- "million 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)
- "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Dir Malik <ubloanfirm@gmail.com>
Reply-To: oueka63@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2024 13:58:34 +0200
Subject: Greeting
Greeting
I am Dr Che M.Ouedra, I currently hold the post as the Audit Account
Manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of UNITED
BANK FOR AFRICA (UBA) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
In my department I discovered an abandoned sum of ($15.8m dollars (FIFTEEN
Million EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND USD dollars) in an account that belongs to
one of our foreign customers (Late. Alexandra Kopylov, who died along with
his wife and the only child in 2015 plane crash.
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next
of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless
someone applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidelines.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this
business proposal for you to stand as the next of kin or relation to the
deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for
it and i don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as an unclaimed
bill.
The banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remains
unclaimed after Nine (9) years, the money will be transferred into the bank
treasury as unclaimed funds.
with your maximum cooperation we are in position to reclaim and inherit the
sum of US$15.8 Million Dollars without any trouble or hindrance and its
100% Risk Free from both sides.
This may not be your area of business but it will be another income and
benefit for both of us;
I will give you more specific details if you are interested in your reply
with these below information.
Your name;............
Country;.............
Age.................
Phone number........
Occupation........
Regards
Dr Che M.Ouedra,
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