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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- to-gomezmaria777@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Gomez" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <gomezmaria777@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:39:45 +0200
Subject: Top Confidential
Attention: Sir- Madam
My name is Mrs. Maria Gomez, an Audit officer in (BANCO BANCAJA ESPANA). I am writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to both of us.
In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of € 7.7 Million Euros (Seven Million Seven Hundred Thousand Euros) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers late
Mr. Morris McAnderson an American who unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31 2000, including his wife and only daughter.
For more information you can go through this site: http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/01/31/alaska.airlines.crash.01/index.html
Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin being his only daughter died along with him in the plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of this fund behind for the claim. After further investigation,
I found out that he did not leave a WILL and all attempts to trace next of kin were fruitless. I therefore made further investigation and discovered that he did not declare any Next of Kin in all his official documents, including his bank deposit papers.
The banking law and guidelines here stipulate that such money remained after ten years will be transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed funds. This sum of € 7.7 Million Euros is still floating in our bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year.
Consequent upon the above, my proposal is that I would like you as a foreigner to stand in as the Next of Kin. I have worked out all modalities to effect transfer of the funds into your nominated account anywhere.
We shall discuss the percentage as soon as I hear from you.
Reply to-gomezmaria777@gmail.com
Thanks. Maria Gomez
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