joewein.de LLC fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter! Free trial for 30 days

"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
• Support our efforts to stop scams!
  
• How to report 419 spam to us
• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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.

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:
  • "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "million us 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)
  • "contact me immediately" (they are rushing you so you don't have time to think properly)
  • "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
• This email message is a next of kin scam.
• 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.
  • funnsho_clark@yahoo.it (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "funshoclark " <funnsho_clark@yahoo.it>
Date: 21 Jan 2007 16:37:34 -0000
Subject: BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER


FROM THE DESK OF.FUNSHO CLARK&nbsp;BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGERFOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPT.BANK OF AFRICA(B.O.A)OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO
Dear Friend,I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign
remittance department BANK OF AFRICA .In my department we
discovered an abandoned sum of U.S$25M US dollars(Twenty
five Million US dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire
family in November 2005 in a plane crash on their visting to
nigeria on the 22th of october 2005.Since we got information
about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to
come over and claim his money because we cannot release it
unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to
the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlines and laws
but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of
kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash
leaving nobody behind for the claim.It is therefore upon
this discovery that I now decided to make thisbusiness proposal to you, so that the money will be released
to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for
safety and subsequent is bursement since nobody is coming
for it and we don\'t want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.The banking law and
guidline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after two years, the money will be transfered into the banktreasury as unclaimed bill. The request of
foreigner as next of kin in this business is occassioned by
the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkina
faso cannot be stand as next of kin to a foreigner.I propose
that 30% of this money will be for you as my foreign artner,
in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10% will be set aside&gt;for expenses incured during the business and
60% would be for me. Thereafter I will visit your country
for disbursement according to the percentages indicated.Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to
you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as elation
or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name,
your bank account number, your private telephone and fax
number for easy and effective communication and location to
wirein the money where it will be remitted.Upon receipt of
your reply, I will send to you by e-mail a text of the
application which you\'ll fill in and send to the bank\'s
email address. I will not fail to bring to your notice that
this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not
entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have
been made for the transfer.You should contact me immediately
as soon as you receive this letter or further your
clarifications,this is my personal email;address funnsho_clark@yahoo.it,&nbsp;&nbsp;Yours faithfully,DR.Funsho clark.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam