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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united states dollars" (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)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Musa Sani <mu.sani.002@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mu.sani.001@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:46:49 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL
FROM:
DESK OF MR. MUSA SANI.
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING SECTION OF
BANK OF AFRICA
(B.O.A)
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO.
Dear
Friend,
I know
that this mail will come to you as a surprise. I am the director in charge of
auditing and accounting section of Bank of Africa Ouagadougou Burkina Faso in
West Africa. I Hoped that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident
that I am about to expose on you for the mutual benefit of our both
families.
We need
your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of $10.5 million united states
dollars immediately to your account. The money has been dormant for years in our
Bank here without any body coming for it. We want to release the money to you as
the nearest person to our deceased customer(the owner of the account)who died
along with his supposed next of kin in an air crash since July
2000.
We
don't want the money to go into our Bank treasury as an abandoned fund. So this
is the reason why i contacted you,so that we can release the money to you as the
nearest person to the deceased customer. Please we would like you to keep this
proposal as a top secret and delete if you are not interested. Upon receipt of
your reply,i will send you full details on how the business will be executed and
also note that you will have 35% of the above mentioned sum if you agree to
transact the business with us.
In
acceptance the following information stated below are
required:
1)Your
age:
2)Your full name and address:
3)Your marital status:
4)Your
occupation/Profession:
5)Your direct telephone:
Yours,
Sincerely,
Mr. Musa Sani.
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