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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 friend" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: mohan dasmunsi <mohandasmunsi5@adinet.com.uy>
Reply-To: mohandasmunsi@adinet.com.uy
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 14:52:46 -0300 (UYT)
Subject: From: Moha Das
Dear friend,
I am Mr Moha Das a staff of Banque Internationale du Burkina (B.I.B) here in
Burkina Faso / Ouagadougou. In my department I discover an abandoned sum of
(US$18.5 Million US Dollars) in an account that belong to one of our foreign
customer who died along with his family in plane crash.
It is therefore upon this discovery that i now decided to make this business
proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to
the deceased for the safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming
for it.
I agree that 40% of this money will be for you, and 10% will be set aside for
expenses incurred during the business and 50% would be for me. Then after the
money is been transferred into your account, i will visit your country for an
investment under your kind control.
You have to contact my Bank directly as the real next of kin of this deceased
account with next of kin application form which i will send to you immeidately
i hear from you.
I am waiting for your urgent respond to enable us proceed further for the
transfer.
Yours faithfull
Moha Das
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Anti-fraud resources:
