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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: Salam <abu.salam2012@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:50:47 +0800 (SGT)
Subject: i need a foreign partner
Dear friend,
I am Mr. Abu Salam the head of file department of Bank of Africa (B.O.A)
herein 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
foreigncustomer who died along with his family in plane crash.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this
businessproposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or
relation tothe deceased for the safety and subsequent disbursement since
nobody is comingfor it. I agree that 40% of this money will be for you,
while 60% would be forme. Then after the money is been transferred into your
account, I will visityour country for an investment under your kind
control.
You have to contact my Bank directly as the real next of kin of this
deceasedaccount with next of kin application form. You have to send me those
yourinformation below to enable me use it and get you next of kin
application formfrom bank, so that you will contact Bank for the transfer of
this money intoyour 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
thetransfer.
Yours faithfully,
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Anti-fraud resources:
