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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)
- "huge sum of money" (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)
- "confidential business" (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: george colley <gcol0004@att.net>
Reply-To: mrgeorgecolley_3@live.com
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 06:19:03 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Please get in touch
Dear Friend,
My name is George Colley I have a confidential business proposal which will be beneficial to the two of us. This has to do with a late client of our bank who died intestate (without a will) leaving behind a huge sum of money. The bank has mandated me to look for the next of kin of the dead client to claim funds as the new beneficiary. However the search has not yielded anything since all the relatives of the dead client died along with him ten years ago. Since the funds will revert to the ownership of the state in seven days time, I have decided to present you to the bank as the next of kin to the dead client.
If you find the above acceptable kindly get back to me with the following details
Full Name, Telephone, and Occupation for full and comprehensive details about this proposal.
Sincere Regards,
George Colley
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Anti-fraud resources:
