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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:
- "million british pounds" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Winston Nana" <katzudork@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: marcanmc@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2010 09:07:44 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Atten :Dear
Atten :Dear
My name is Dr. Winston Nana, a foreign remittance officer with a bank here in London I found a file in my department, and it's content is worth £10 million British pounds, I have made investigation concerning this fund and I found out that the fund belongs to our late client Mrs. Melissa who was involved in a Madrid plane crash on 20th August 2008 where 153 persons perished. In my search about her relative I found out that her family was involved in the plane crash too.
I decided to contact you because of the new act being put into law on September 2007. You can see the website link below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia-pacific/6997381.stm
Regarding to the law imposed by the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in world press conference on Tuesday 6 December 2005 at 12:18 GMT.
For more information about the Prime Minister decision on dormant accounts:
Visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4017381.stm
Audit of the year as against 2006 informed us clearly as it was stated in our foreign banking policies and regulations which was signed lawfully; that if such fund remains unclaimed till the period of 4 years starting from the date when the beneficiary died, the money will be transferred into the government treasury as an ‘unclaimed fund’.
Please reply me for further details.
Thanks & my best regards to you and your family.
Dr.Winston Nana
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Anti-fraud resources:
