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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:
- "million united states 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)
- "barr." (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Barr. Nordin Abdullah" <mhdkhalid79@gmail.com>
Reply-To: anordin18@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 06:54:20 +0800
Subject: CAN I TRUST YOU!!!
--
Greetings!
Do accept my apologies if my mail does not meet your personal ethics, I
want to introduce myself and this business opportunity to you. My name is
Nordin Abdullah Esq., a personal attorney to my late client. I wish to
know if we can work together.
I would like you to stand as the next of kin to my late client who has an
account valued 12.7million United States dollars, with a bank here in
Malaysia. He died without any registered next of kin and as such the funds
now have an open beneficiary mandate. The board of directors of his Bank
adopted a resolution and I was mandated to provide his next of kin for the
payment of this money or forfeit the money to the Bank as an abandoned
property.
Please contact me at once to indicate your interest. Do understand that
this transaction do require utmost confidence and you should keep this mail
to yourself not withstanding if you are rejecting the transaction or
accepting it.
Note that I reserve the right to reject your acceptance of this proposal
if I have reasons to believe that you may not be honest or discreet as it
concerns this proposal.
Further details will be giving as soon as your interest is indicated.
Yours Sincerely
Barr. Nordin Abdullah
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Anti-fraud resources:
