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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)
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Lulu Mohamed <lulumohamed1960@gmail.com>
Reply-To: lulumohamed002@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2010 04:08:35 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: From Mr Lulu Mohamed
From Mr Lulu Mohamed
Dear Friend,
I
know
that this message will come to you as a surprise. I AM A BILL AND
EXCHANGE
MANAGER TO THE FOREIGN REMITTANCE DIRECTOR
BANK HERE IN OUAGADOUGOU
BURKINA
FASO. I Hope that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident
that i
am about to repose on you for the mutual
benefit of our both
families.
I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of
($25.5)million US
DOLLAR into
your account within 14 banking days. This money has been
dormant
for years in
our Bank without claim. I want the bank to release the
money to
you as the
nearest person to our deceased customer, the owner of the
account
died along
with his supposed next of kin in an air crash since July
31st
2000.
I don't want the money to go into our Bank treasurer as
an
abandoned fund. So
this is the reason why i contacted you so that
the bank
can release the money
to you as the next of kin to the deceased
customer.
Please I would like you to
keep this proposal as a top secret get
back to me
so that i will give to
you the full details information and the bank
application letter wich you have
to fill and aply to the bank as the
next of
kin to the deceased customer and
delete it if you are not
interested.
your information
1. name in full.............
2.
address...................
3. age..........................
4.
occupation.............
5. phone number.......
BEST REGARD
Mr.Lulu
Mohamed.
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