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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united states 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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "MR. ANTHONY ESELU" <eselu232@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 04:22:22 -0800
Subject: Yours Truely.
Dear Friend,
My name is Mr. Anthony B.E and I am the operations manager in account
management section, in charge of credit and foreign bills of one of the
prime banks in Nigeria I am writing in respect of a German British citizen
customer of my bank Mr.Akotuah S.T who died together with his wife and
children and along with 149 others which includes the then Nigerian sports
minister late Ishaya Mark Aku in a Plan crash of EAS air-line plane crash
in Kano northern Nigeria on may 14th 2002 please see this site <
http://www.usafricaonline.com/ngrkanocrash.html> stm for more information .
The late Mr. Akotuah S. T left in our bank the sum US$17m (seventeen
million united states dollars) and nobody will ever come for this money
because he died with his entire family. I am the only person that is aware
of this money since Mr. Akotuah S. T did not give to my bank any next of
kin to inherit his money. Now, I want to use my position in the bank to
transfer this money to your country for investment.
If you can provide me with an account where I can transfer this US$17m
(seventeen million united states dollars) I will give you 30% of this
entire fund while the remaining 70% shall be for me.
I am hoping to get a favorable response from you.
MR. ANTHONY B.E
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Anti-fraud resources:
