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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:
- "inheritance funds" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "you are advice to " (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
Fraud email example:
From: "K. William" <k.williamhome@ymail.com>
Reply-To: k.williamoffice@ymail.com
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 14:48:35 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Payment confirmation
Hello,
We wishers to congratulate you on the achievement of final approval of your inheritance funds, we are very excited to informed you this day that a transfer payment of $1.2 Million has been made in your favour.
We also confirm that instruction has been giving by the finance ministry to release this payment to you via Automatic Teller Machine (ATM card) for instant use. Therefore, the ATM MasterCard would be shipped direct to your address through speed post delivery.
With due respect, kindly provide to us the short listed information below;
(a) Your full names:
(b) Contact address:
(c) Mobile phone number:
The above information will only be used for shipment processing and must be secured. You are advice to forward it to our Telex department director in the person Mr. Richardson Brian by using the email address and telephone number below;
E-mail: acc-directives@yandex.com
Tel: +229 679 202 17
We congratulate you once again and looking forward to serve you better.
Regards,
K. William.
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Anti-fraud resources:
