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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:
- "please indicate your interest" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "dum0z@ibest.com.br" (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: CHARLES DUM <dum0z@ibest.com.br>
Reply-To: pan_ng0z@ibest.com.br
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:05:40 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Contact me asap
Re: foreign receivership/beneficiary
Hello Sir,
I crave your indulgence to kindly attend to this in good faith. i do not mean any disrespect approaching you through this medium,it's due to time constrain on the matter. my partners and i are active management officials of the nigerian federal ministry of works and housing/urban development (fmwh/ud).firstly, i am Charles Dum an eng with the above mentioned ministry.
we would like to employ your efforts to act as the receiver/beneficiary of a contract sum worth $12.8m. the money legally belongs to us; being proceeds from
over invoicing of contract executed in our ministry over the years. we happen to be the members of the contract awarding committee which made us negotiate with the original contractor to add 10% of the contract sum for us which he did. now the original contractor has been paid remaining the sum mentioned above.
our masterplan is to make you the chief beneficiary of this fund by way of advancing you as a contractor to whom the corporation is indebted, [to the tune of $12.8m.the blueprint is 100% tested and workable to the letter also risk free and legal.
we have agreed to offer you 25% ($12.8m) for your kind assistance and 5% of the funds is set aside for any expenses both parties will come accross along the line and 70% for us here. please get back to us for full details. you are advised to respond to this message to My email address dum0z@ibest.com.br Please indicate your interest and feel free to ask questions where you don't understand us.
For urgent attention to be taken.
Yours Faithfully,
Charles Dum
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