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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
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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.

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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)
  • "hundred thousand 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)
  • "dormant account" (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.
  • engelmann_wolfgang@yahoo.co.uk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: =?utf-8?q?Wolfgang=20Engelmann?= <w_engelmann@yahoo.com.co>
Reply-To: engelmann_wolfgang@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:38:49 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: RE: INQUIRY


¡Tengo nueva dirección de correo!Ahora puedes escribirme a:w_engelmann@yahoo.com.co



- Dear friend, I am contacting you in regards to a proposal about some particular funds in a dormant account. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that you got nothing to worry about. I discovered an abandoned sum of US$17,500, 000.00 (Seventeen Million, Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars) in a dormant account in the bank where I work. This account belongs to one of our foreign Customers (an American) late Dr George Brumley Jr. This very account has been dormant for some years now. After my investigations, I discovered that the account owner has died since July 2003 with all his family members in a plane crash. Please see the site link below. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenya.crash/index.html. Since his death, nobody has come forward to lay claims to this money and recently my bank issued a notice that the account will be declared unserviceable and the funds called to the government treasury since no relative of the deceased customer has come up for it. In order to avert this negative action of the bank, I now seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin so that funds can be released in your favor as the next of kin. Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual business endeavor by furnishing me with your personal details if you are willing to work with me on this. 1. Your full name 2. Complete Address 3. Profession/type of business 4. Telephone and fax numbers 5. copy of your ID This information will enable me file the relevant application through a lawyer, so as to indicate you as his next of kin after which you will formally apply for the release of the funds as the next of kin to the deceased customer to the bank. We are going to share the total sum on final conclusion of this transaction on a 50-50 equal basis. If you are truly disposed and capable of handling this, reach me immediately. Regards. Mr. Wolfgang Engelmann 140 Lower Marsh London SE1 7AE Email: engelmann_wolfgang@yahoo.co.uk

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam