419 scam: "Mrs. Catherine Cain" <cat_cain12@att.net> Dearest in God, in good health with your familyynd ofPŒë¸"

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

Home

About Us

Spam

419/Nigeria

Fraud

Contact

"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:
- "inheritance funds" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "god fearing " (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Mrs. Catherine Cain" <cat_cain12@att.net>
Reply-To: catherinecain@hotmail.fr
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:43:47 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Dearest in God,

Dearest in God,

Greetings of peace to you and your blessed family over there! And may God bless you and your family for having a good profile! I am Mrs. Catherine Cain,61 of age, a devoted Christian and now aging widow suffering from long time illness. I have a blood cancer and right now I am admitted in a hospital here at Abidjan, capital city of Ivory Coast.

I came across your profile during my search in the internet and I found out that you have a good record as a God fearing person, so I had decided to seek for your assistance in utilizing our inheritance funds of $4,650,000.00 in assisting the Orphanage and Churches in your country with our name and my reason of contacting you is because my husband and I made our money from your country and we have agreed before he past away that our funds will be given to Charity organization in your country since we do not have a child.

I want this fund to go for charity because I have no child to be the inheritor, 15% out of the total fund will be for your compensation for doing this work of God.

I await your early reply to enable me furnish you with details on how to receive the funds for God's work from me and my Late Husband.

Your Sister In The Lord.
Mrs. Catherine Cain.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam