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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)
- "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)
- "charlesd1980@voila.fr" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: CHARLES DALLE <mff.bf@minister.com>
Reply-To: charlesd1980@voila.fr
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 06:52:58 +0100 (BST)
Subject:
Dear friend,
I know that this message will come to you as a surprise. I am CHARLES DALLE,
manager auditing & accounting unit of Bank of Africa Foreign
Department. I Hope that you will not expose or betray this trust and
confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our
both families.
I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($4.2M) million to
your account within 10 or 14 banking days. This money has been dormant for
years in our Bank without claim. I want the bank to release the money to you
as the nearest person to our deceased customer who died
along with his entire family in air crash since 31 July 2000.
I need a foreign partner because that is the only way to claim the fund. I
am contacting you so that the bank will release the money to you as the next
of kin to the deceased customer. Please I would like you to keep this
proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested.
Upon receipt of your reply, I will give you full details on how the business
will be executed and also note that you will have 40% of the above mentioned
sum if you agree to handle this business with me.
I am expecting your urgent response as soon as you receive my message.
Contact me here charlesd1980@voila.fr
Best regards,
CHARLES DALLE
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Anti-fraud resources:
