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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:
- "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: DHL Delivery Company <dhldc.20121@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 09:16:07 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: FROM DHL OFFICE
We are giving you this earlier claiming notice of your package which was in our custody since .Yesterday morning a man came to our office here in Cotonou Benin Republic West Africa to claim your package on your behalf. According to his statements yesterday when we are asking him some questions in order to be sure that he was legal person, he said that he is your relation and the owner of the package has died 3 days ago and he is the next of kin who suppose to inherits the package which belong to his relation who passed away 3 days ago.
As the matter of fact, he gave his name as Mr. Kjell Arne Valter and he is your next kin but we are not very sure of what he was saying. This morning we crosscheck our files and found out that he might be right because yours name looks so familiar and to be honest to you now, we are very confused because we don’t know if this is truth or not.
After our executive meeting this morning concerning the matter with our board of directors, we come into conclusion that before we can release the package to your next kin, we will first of all contact you via email in order to know if you have died or still alive and try to get back to us immediately if you are alive to claim your package or we will release the package to your next of kin Mr. Kjell Arne Valter.
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Anti-fraud resources:
