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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:
- "million united states 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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Standard Chartered Bank" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <inter_customer_relations@accountant.com>
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 13:19:07 -0500
Subject: YOUR FUND IS ABOUT TO DIVERT
Attention!
As introduced on my last email, I'm Dr. Solomon A. Atta a bank manager of Standard Chartered Bank Ghana
Ltd.
We write to confirm if you are still using this account sent to this bank on the 3rd Sept 2012 by one Mr Johnson
Wolf who claim to be your personal account officer from City bank and BOA of USA. He stated that you are sick
and hospitalized for about two weeks now and that you ordered her to send a new transfer instruction to us in
Standard Chartered Bank Ghana to effect the transfer of your fund totaling $2.600.000.00 Million United States Dollars.
Here is the account information send by this Mr. Johnson Wolf for the transfer of your fund please verify and
get back to us immediately so we can know our next of action.
Bank Name: City Bank USA
Bank Address: 386 Park Avenue
Account Name: Johnson Wolf
Account Number: 235-325172-882
Bank Code: 0219
Swift Code: HASEkKHH
It is very important you contact our bank immediately to enable us verify her to avert making any further mistakes,
please fill free to call us: Tel: +233 549549337 for urgent confirmation.
Thanks as we wait to hear from you immediately.
Regards
Dr. Solomon Atta
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Anti-fraud resources:
