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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:
- "million 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)
- "very confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "liberia" (a location commonly mentioned 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: Amanda Yaman <myamadaza@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:53:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re:Greetings of of the day to you
Greetings of of the day to you,
May the blessing of God be upon you and grant you the wisdom and sympathy to understand my situation and how much I needed your assistance. I am making this contact with you based on trust and confidence irrespective of the fact that we have not meet before and due to nature of the situation i found myself as a victim of political crises in my country, Liberia that cost the death of my parents and which made me to stay here in Senegal as a refugee.
My name is Amanda Yaman; I am contacting you based on a pitiable situation in which I found myself today. Please find a way to help me out and I will remain grateful.
My condition here is terrible but I hope by God’s grace i will come out here soon. I don't have any relatives now whom i can go to all our relatives ran away in the middle of the crisis. I want to go back to my studies because i only attended my first year at the university before the tragic incident that lead to my being in this situation now took place.
There is an information I would like you to keep very confidential. Please listen to this, I have my late father's statement of account (as his next of kin)here with me because when he was alive he deposited some amount of money in a bank which he used my name as the next of kin, the amount in question is Three Million Dollars($3.000.000.00).
So I decided to seek your assistance in transferring and securing this money to your account for investment purposes. I want you to stand as my Trustee/Partner and establish contact with the bank to discuss the process of transferring the funds to your bank account in your country. And also to make arrangement on how i will come over to your country after the transfer and stay with you and continue my life and education.
In the light of the above, I will appreciate an urgent message indicating your ability and willingness to handle this transaction sincerely and honestly.
Please do keep this only to yourself and do not disclose it to anyone till i come over after the fund has been transferred.
Awaiting your urgent and positive response.
Yours Sincerely,
Miss Amanda
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