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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)
- "huge amount 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)
- "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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: =?UTF-8?B?IkpvaG5zb24gQ2lzc29rbyI=?= <emilyalba8@terra.com>
Date:
Subject:
From: Mr. Johnson Cissoko.
Manager: Audit and Accounts.
African De=
velopment Bank,
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Dear Friend,
I am s=
ending this E-mail with greeting to you. I am the above mentioned person wi=
th said office position. I'm contacting you in respect of a business deal w=
hich I intend to carry out with a deal-minded foreigner. There is an accoun=
t here in our bank with a credit balance of Ten million Five hundred thousa=
nd united state dollars, US$10.5million. As I talk to you now, this said ac=
count is without a beneficiary or heir. This means that the money presently=
does not belong to anybody. I have explored all options and decided to exe=
cute this deal with a foreigner who can strike the deal with me by receivin=
g this huge amount of money in his/her foreign bank account and take 40% of=
it.
so I will give you all the details regarding the deal as soon as I =
hear from you and please make this proposal a top secret and delete it if y=
ou are not interested.
Thanks and regards.
Mr.Johnson Cissoko=
.
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Anti-fraud resources:
