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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:
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Jeffery Wyatt" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <wyattjeffery0@yahoo.com.ar>
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:50:19 -0000
Subject: Your reponse required ASAP.
Hello,
My name is Jeffrey Wyatt and I was advised to contact you by a mutual friend who works with a reputable bank and who at this stage would like to remain anonymous due to the nature of his job and nature of the business I am about to propose to you.
Your name was suggested to me after I confided to him about transporting a very large amount of money (?17,000,000.00) Seventeen million euros out of the UK . This contact provided your contact details to me and assured me of your capability to handle transactions of this magnitude.
The money is in 500 euro bills and we are finding it difficult to exchange it to British pound sterling or USA dollars simply because the financial institutions over here are refusing to exchange the 500 euro notes due to the British government placing an embargo on the exchange of these notes
www.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8678886.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1277892/Britain-axes-500-euro-note-organised-crime-fears.html
www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1005/100514-euros.html
At the moment we are open to suggestions as to how these funds can be moved out of the UK . We are also willing to exchange the bills at a reasonable discount to the British pounds or USA dollars. We will also welcome the opportunity of ?breaking? the notes down to smaller denominations of euros (this will provide us the opportunity to utilise the funds in the UK , which was the reason the funds was shipped here in the first instance
We are able to cover your expenses to London for a ?face to face? discussion on how to resolve this problem.
Please note that this is not a proposal for ?advance fee fraud?. We do not need money from you and will not be requesting any. We are only interested in utilising your expertise or contacts to get this problem resolved.
For further information and discussion on the issue please be at liberty to reply my email.
Regards,
Jeffery Wyatt
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