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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:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "foreign exchange" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- "abuja" (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: REV ANTHONY ORTEGA <anthonyortega01@click21.com.br>
Reply-To: revanthonyortega.2008@rediffmail.com
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:25:16 -0300
Subject: FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE.
FEDERAL SECRETARIAT,FCT,
ABUJA.
This is to inform you that the funds of one Mr Martin Dufort OF Brunel is being
processed for transfer to your account as the next of kin as requested by
Mr.Dufort in his will recently made public.
You are requested to reconfirm your banking details as soon as possible.
Upon receipt of your bank account details we would transfer through our
off-shore payment center in spain the sum of $19.3M of the estate of the
deceased .
You are free to nominate a fresh account with zero balance for the purpose of
this transfer if you are not comfortable with releasing the information of your
present bank account.
You may wish to know that we secured the permission of the Federal government
of
Nigeria to use only foreign banks for the transfer of inheritances and contract
payments of foreign beneficiaries because of the inherent difficulties
experienced while using our local banks.
My regards,
REV. REV ANTHONY ORTEGA
FOREIGN EXCHANGE ALLOCATION DEPARTMENT
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE
___________________________________________________________________________________
Para fazer uma ligação DDD pra perto ou pra longe, faz um 21. A Embratel tem
tarifas muito baratas esperando por você. Aproveite!
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Anti-fraud resources:
