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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Samuel Opam <samopam@outlook.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 23:28:18 +0000
Subject: Waiting for your response
Dear friend,
l am Samuel Opam, a banker by profession from
Burkina Faso in West Africa and currently holding the post of Director
Auditing and Accounting unit of the bank. It's my urgent need for a
foreign partner that made me to contact you for this business. I have
the opportunity of transferring the left over funds (US$11.5M) of one of
my bank clients who died along with his entire family on 31 July 2000
in a plane crash. You can confirm the genuineness of the deceased death
by clicking on this website.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
I need a
foreign partner who will support me because l can not claim this money
alone without a foreign partner since the deceased client (the owner of
the fund) was a foreigner.
This fund (US$11.5Million) will be
shared between us in the ratio of 60/40. I agreed that 40% of this money
will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foreign account
while 60% will be for me and I want to assure you that this transaction
is absolutely legal and risk free since l work in this bank and l have
all the necessary information that might be needed. Before we proceed, l
would like to know your ability to handle this over there in your
country.
Please tell me more about the political/economic
stability/monetary policy of your country. I need to know all these
because l don't want to have problem with the Government of your
country.
Kindly update me with the following information because l
want to know you more before we proceed on this transaction. Hope you
will understand the importance of this request.
1. Your full name........................
2. Your age/sex ..........................
3. your occupation ................
4. Your residential address ..................
5. Your nationality ..............
6. Your private phone number ..................
7. Your fax number ...................
I will be waiting for your response. Thanks for your understanding. Have a great day.
Yours.
Samuel Opam
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Anti-fraud resources:
