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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "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)
- "waiting for your urgent response" (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)
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. W.A. Ademola" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <waademola11@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:53:32 +0200
Subject: Re: I solicite for your urgent response please
Résultat X-TM-AS: Yes-20.357300-5.000000-31
X-TM-AS-Utilisateur-Expéditeur-Approuvé: No
X-TM-AS-Utilisateur-Expéditeur-Bloqué: No
X-UI-Loop: V01:MsjNPI+suoI=:IcMPkQW23pmB1Xx6i8K7S7pBBHL0hYMo5xG38dmVfls=
X-Spam-Flag: YES
My dear friend,
I am Mr. Wassi Andrie Ademola, the Head of Legal department in one security and Holden Firm in Cotonou (Benin Republic).I want to bring to your notice a business opportunity which I hope will interest you; On the 11th Of April 20011 Khamis Gadhafi one of the Libyan President sons (Moammar Gadhafi) deposited the total sum of ten million five hundred thousand dollars ($10.5million dollars) with our security company during the uprising and bombing in Libya under my care because he said if he deposited it in the bank they will trace it.He hoped to claim this fund when the war in Libya might have ended. I have kept this a top secret till now without letting other staffs of our security company know about it. But recently my client who was in charge of 32nd Brigade known as Khamis Command was killed after a battle with rebel forces between the villages of Tarunah and Bani Walid in Northwest Libya, near Misrata.
It is as a result of his death that I decided to have this money transferred immediately out of Cotonou (Benin Republic) to a place where it will be invested wisely into a good business. Note that I am the only person that knows that this money that is deposited with our security company belongs to Gadhafi family and as a result of the money trafficking laws that is in our country now, I have made all necessary arrangement to enable this money to be transferred through our offshore payment Center abroad to your nominated account.
I will give you 25% of the total money while 65% will be for me and 10% of the money will be used to settle any expenses accrued by you or me during the process of actualizing this transaction.Note: This is risk free as I am going to update you with the entire backup document for the smooth process of the transfer of the fund into your bank account, so there will be no traces that this money belonged to Gadhafi’s family.
I am waiting for your urgent response
Yours Faithfully,
Mr. W.A. Ademola
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