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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:
- "huge amount of money" (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)
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Mrs Nasifat <mrsnasifamugo@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mrsnasifatmungo@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2013 06:13:45 +0800 (CST)
Subject: My dear give attention to this message
My dear give attention to this message
I know this message may come as a surprise to you, any way in other to make things very clear to you. I am Mrs. Nasifat Mungo working as an auditor here in SGBB Bank Burkina Faso. I find this huge amount of money in a dormant account that belongs to Late Mr. Ahmad Dorda Murad who was a special adviser to late president Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, he died on 20th October 2011 along with President Muammar Gaddafi including his family and other advisers during NATO ATTACK.
And the fund has been there for many years due to the fact that the owner made the account secret and no next of kin for the claim. I want to present you as the next of kin to the fund and upon successful transfer to your bank account; i will join you to share the money 60/40, 60% for me and 40% for you. I hope you will join me in this deal. Get back to me so i will tell you more details and directives on how to go about this.
The whole process is expected to take 5 working days if we commence and it is risk FREE on both side since i have every documents to back up the claim on your behalf as an insider in the bank but you must maintain the confidentiality that this deal demand.
Thanks,
Mrs. Nasifat
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Anti-fraud resources:
