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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:
- "very confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "barrister" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
Fraud email example:
From: "Barrister David Okafor" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <davidokafor.20092@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2010 17:29:20 -0700
Subject: This Matter Is Confidential
Greetings,
I Hope all is well with you and your family? I decided to contact you via e-mail because this information needs urgent attention.
The matter is about my deceased client who died in 2005; the management of his bank has issued me a notice to provide his extended next of kin/beneficiary or they will have the fund in his bank account confiscated within few days.
I as the personal attorney to the deceased want to present you to his bank as his next of kin, so that we can claim this fund and not allow the bank to confiscate it.
Get back to me upon your interest for more details and you should make this matter very confidential for security reason.
Best regards,
Barrister David Okafor
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Anti-fraud resources:
