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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Attorney Al-Fuad Mumak" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <attorneyalfuadmumak100@kimo.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 21:28:55 +0100
Subject: Please pardon the urgency of this letter.
Please pardon the urgency of this letter.
I am Attorney Al-Fuad Mumak, personal attorney to Late Khamis Al Gaddafi who died on Saturday during the US attack here in Tripoli. The essence this letter is basically to solicit your assistance in reprofiling the funds in tune of $23.6Million belonging to late Khamis which was deposited with a security Vault in Europe in 2001. This fund was deposited in 2001 but due to the death of the owner (Khamis Gaddafi), the present heat on the family and country at large and owing to the series of confiscations being placed the family's possession, I decided to solicit your partnership in reprofiling these funds from the security company into your personal account.
The said fund was not lodged in his name at the security company hence securing a change of beneficiary will be done with ease. I want us to execute this course mutually because I intend leaving the country as earliest as possible immediately you succeed retrieving the funds into your personal account. The funds here will be disbursed 50/50 between you and I; because obviously no member of his family has any knowledge of this deposit.
Please get back to me urgently to enable the commencement of this course which will not exceed 4-5days for smooth accomplishment.
Kind Regards,
Attorney Mumak
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Anti-fraud resources:
