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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:
- "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "transfer of your funds" (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)
- "hundred thousand us 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)
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Martin" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.martinelechi1@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 04:04:31 -0700
Subject: RE: YOUR OUTSTANDING PAYMENT.
FROM THE DESK OF DR.MARTIN ELECHI:
DIRECTOR OF PAYMENT.
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE, NIGERIA.
Dear Beneficiary,
RE: YOUR OUTSTANDING PAYMENT .
Following the lost of partial records in your payment file due to virus attack on our central data system,we are glad to inform you that we are able to match your contact with some data concerning the payment of your US$6.5M( SIX MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS).
However, we regret to inform you that we lost most of your. Banking information for the transfer of your funds.
You are therefore required to forward your full banking account details to enable us feed it into our system and transfer your funds immediately to the account.
We regret any inconvenience this will cause you.
Yours Faithfully,
DR.MARTIN ELECHI
Director OF Payment
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE.
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Anti-fraud resources:
