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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "huge sum of money" (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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- 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.
- gthomas586@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Gary Thomas <gthomas09@abv.bg>
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2014 06:25:19 +0200 (EET)
Subject: Money Available For Transfer.
Hello!
My name is Gary Thomas. I am the Director in charge of
auditing and accounting department of the West African Development Bank
(BOAD) Lome, Togo in West Africa.
During our auditing in this
bank, my department came across a huge sum of money belonging to a
deceased customer (a citizen of your country), who died in April 2011 in
a car crash along with his wife and their only daughter. The fund is
valued at $9.7 million. Meanwhile, all the whole arrangement to put
claim on this fund for approval and transfer to a foreign account has
been put in place.
I will be monitoring the whole situation here
in this bank until you confirm the money in your account and ask me to
come down to your country for subsequent sharing of the fund.
I beg you to keep this matter a secret as I am still in service and intend to retire after we conclude this deal.
We
will talk about how we should divide the money between the two of us
once you indicate your interest to work with me in this transaction.
Sincerely.
Gary Thomas.
Direct E-mail: gthomas586@gmail.com
Tel: +228 97103535
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Anti-fraud resources:
