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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.
- 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.
- robert_rice11@hotmail.com (Hotmail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Advisory Services Ltd. U.K." <info@robert.org>
Reply-To: robert_rice11@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:17:45 +0530
Subject: STANDARD.CLAIMS.ENQUIRY.
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BRADSHAW, BOLTON,
LANCASHIRE
BL2 3EU, UK
Email:robert_rice11@hotmail.com
Re: STANDARD.CLAIMS.ENQUIRY.
My name is Mr. Robert Rice. I work as an executive partner for the firm
Finance Advisory Services Ltd. U.K.
We are conducting an end of year consolidated financial statement for
the year
ending.2008 under conjunctional agreement with Hsbc conglomerate banking
giants. This notary enquiry involves a client who shares your surname
and also
the circumstances surrounding investments made by this client at Hsbc Private
Bank offshore group a commercial and investment arm of the parent
Bank. It was
brought to our knowledge that the aforementioned client died in testate and
nominated no next of kin to the title over the investments made with
the Bank.
We came to know of you via the London Global Database Center (L.G.D.C.) Hence
we are making this contact. The essence of this communication with you is to
assist us in our investigation by providing us with information you may have
regarding this inquiry on any of the 3 KEY issues.
1. Are you aware of any relative/relation whose last contact address
was in the united kingdom?
2. Who shares a similar name?
3. Who' date of birth on file was 27/07/1946?
Thank-you for your co-operation and best regards
Mr. Robert Rice.
Finance Advisory Services Ltd,
London. (U.K.)
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Anti-fraud resources:
