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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:
- "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)
- "(efcc)" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Bode Oladipo" <ow001@aguwemui.com>
Reply-To: dr.bode.oladipo@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2013 21:42:10 -0500
Subject: From: Dr. Bode Oladipo (information)
From: Dr. Bode Oladipo
Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF)
Ref: FGN/FMF/PRE/CONTRACT/-2012
TOP SECRET
>From all my personal investigation in your payment file, I sincerely wish
to inform you that you are not the original contractor/inheritance of the
said contract funds because you did not do any contract here with Nigeria
government. The original contractor/beneficiary has completed the contract
with Nigerian government long time ago and received its full contract
payment before you file in your application for claim on the said fund.
However this fund you are now claiming is an over-invoiced contract
amount, though which has been approved for payment in your name and favor.
But for this reasons we cannot further this payment any more unless you
will agree on my conditions that this fund shall be a deal between me and
you because the fund dose not belong to you.
Moreover there are still few mistakes and illegal approval documents in
the payment file, even the contract details and amount etc, these are the
reason why you could not receive this payment up till this day and will
not receive it until you comply with me.
My conditions are below:
1) As soon as you receive this fund I shall be entitle of 50% of the total
sum.
2) You shall keep this deal between me and you as top secret.
3) You shall also give me letter of assurance to prove that you will
surely release my own share percentage to me as we will agree and will
never reveal this deal to anybody.
Furthermore, if you cannot agree on my above conditions then I shall
report your payment file to the senate committee on contract payment and
office of Economic & Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for onward action
of cancellation of this payment. Meanwhile all I need is your sincere
truth and co-operation so that I can tell you the next thing to do for
immediate release of the funds to you.
I wait for your favorable and quick reply.
Be advice.
Dr. Bode Oladipo
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