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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
Fraud email example:
From: "USMAN ALI" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <usmanali66@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:14:40 +0200
Subject: [Spam] WITH DUE RESPECT
Dear Sir/Madam
Pardon me for not having the pleasure of
knowing your mindset before making you this
offer and it is utterly confidential and genuine by
virtue of its nature.I write to solicit your
assistance in a funds transfer deal involving US$
3.5M.This fund has been stashed out of the
excess profit made last year by my branch office
the International Commercial Bank which I am
the manager.
I have already submitted an
approved end of the year report for the year
2008 to my head office here in Accra-Ghana and
they will never know of this excess. I have since
then, placed this amount on a Non-Investment
Account without a beneficiary. Upon your
response, I will configure your name on our
database as holder of the Non-Investment
Account. I will then guide you on how to apply to
my head office for the Account Closure/
bank-to-bank remittance of the funds to your
designated bank account.
If you concur with this proposal, I intend for you
to retain 30% of the funds while 70% shall be
for me. kindly forward your response to usmanali66@gmail.com
regards
Usman Ali
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Anti-fraud resources:
