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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Mohammad Ali <mohammad.ali152@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:23:44 +0800 (SGT)
Subject: PLEASE URGENT ASSISTANCE
Dear friend,
I am Mr Mohammad Ali the head of file department of Bank of Africa
(B.O.A) here in Burkina Faso / Ouagadougou. In my department we discover
an abandoned sum of (US$18mllion US Dollars) in an account that belongs
to one of our foreign customer who died along with his family in plane
crash.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this
business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin
or relation to the deceased for the safety and subsequent disbursement
since nobody is coming for it. I agree that 40% of this money will be
for you, while 60% would be for me. Then after the money is been
transferred into your account, I will visit your country for an
investment under your kind control.
You have to contact my Bank directly as the real next of kin of this
deceased account with next of kin application form. You have to send me
those your information below to enable me use it and get you next of kin
application form from bank, so that you will contact Bank for the
transfer of this money into your account.
Your Full Name_______________________
Your Home Address____________________
Your Age ____________________
Your Handset Number____________________
Your Occupation _______________________
I am waiting for your urgent respond to enable us proceed further
for the transfer.
Yours faithfully,
Mr Mohammad Ali
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Anti-fraud resources:
