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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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "HARRISON MYERS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <h.myers@globomail.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2012 04:58:48 -0700
Subject: TREAT AS URGENT AND GET BACK TO ME IMMEDIATELY
Dear Friend
I am delighted to contact you for a mutual business transaction.
First permit me to introduce myself; I am Harrison Myers, a banker in UK. I am contacting you to assist in the claim of some outstanding sum of money, which was left, by one of my very good clients who died in an AF4590 plane crash on his way to America after he left UK to Germany for business. This customer Christian Eich was an engineer.
He left no known next of kin and all our attempts to trace someone related to him to whom we could pay the money proved abortive. I have now personally decided to contact you to stand on behalf of the family so I can present you as his next of kin using my influence as a Manager of this bank.
The amount involved is US$11million, which is the account balance. You can take time and verify from the website as shown herein for confirmation of the crash, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm I contacted you because it is against our code of ethics to own and operate a foreign accounts and your assistance would be needed to claim the money.
I have agreed that 35% of the entire sum would be for you if you agree to take part in this profitable transaction, 60% for me while the remaining 5% would be used to pay back the expenses that may be incurred during the course of the transaction by both parties after the fund has been claimed as the next of kin.
You should send me the following information:
1. Your full names
2. Your postal/home address
3. Your private telephone and fax number
Upon the receipt of the above information I shall send you more details.
I look forward to hearing from you ASAP.
Yours faithfully
Harrison Myers
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Anti-fraud resources:
