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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "to your nominated bank account" (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)
- "utmost confidentiality" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "cissetraore@voila.fr" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Chidinma Nnaya <chinma2@hotmail.fr>
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:38:26 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Compliment of the day My Good Friend,
Compliment of the day My Good Friend,
I am Mr. Micheal Chidinma of Bank of africa Burkina Faso - West Africa.
Although you might be apprehensive about my email as we have not met before. I am in the
auditing department with bank of africa Burkina Faso; during my recent auditing I
discovered some amount of money valued (USD$10.5)Ten million Five Hundred Thousand United
State Dollar as an unclaimed fund with accumulated intrest which is in a domain account.
When i submited the report to director of the bank he advise that i should make an
arrangement to transfer it to a foreign account for investment purposes in your country.
I am writing to seek your assistance in working with me, so that we can transfer the fund
into your account and invest in area that will be beneficiary to us as you may advice.
This however is not mandatory nor will I in any manner compel you to honour against your
will. I would like you to read on and consider the value I offer. Once the funds have been
transferred to your nominated bank account we shall then share in the ratio of 70% for us,
30% for you. I want to give you 100% assurance that this transaction is also risk free
one, all I need from you is your maximum support and co-operation for a smooth and hitch
free transfer of funds into your account.
I advice please treat this business with utmost confidentiality. If interested please
Kindly respond with your data information for onward guideline & proceeding.
Alternative address cissetraore@voila.fr
Sincerely,
Mr. Micheal Chidinma
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Anti-fraud resources:
