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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)
- "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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: ibrahim baccary <ibrahimbaccary6@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2013 13:54:38 +0000
Subject: VERY CONFIDENCIAL
Greetings to you ,my name is Ibrahim .B. Doumbia I was one of the
stewards and driver to the Late Libyan leader Col. Muamar Ghadaffi.I
am a Gambia by origin and have been with the late leader’s family for
over 17yrs.Infact, all my children were born in Libya.
Now I m in Mali at the moment.But I thank the Almighty Allah that I am
still alive .I want to bring to your notice some of the treasures that
the late Col. Muamar Ghadaffi deposited with the security company
here in mali which I m the next of king.
The total sum of $10.5million dollars were deposited with the security
firm in Mali with my name as the next of king. I also signed the
certificate of deposit as the next of king.and I also know the secret
code of the deposits too.
Now that I am the only surviving person that knows about the existence
of these funds ,I decide to look for a trustworthy person that will
assist me in retrieval these funds and I have spoken to a well
connected attorney who have agreed
to help me discretely with all the legal claims and documents I have,
but he advised that I get a foreigner that will receive the funds so
that it will be safer and more secured in the process of the
reclamation and transfers.All the legal document concerning this funds
are with me as the next of king,After you have healp me in retrieving
the funds I will like to invest the money in your country as a
parnership with you.
For this reason dear friend I have contacted you so that we will work
together as brothers and benefit together too.I will compensate you
with 35% of the total amount of the funds at the end of the
transaction. I choose to retrieve these treasures now because some
of the treasures of the late Libyan leader deposited in South Africa
have just been discovered and investigations going on ;see this link (
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22745618); so I don’t want that
to happen to these ones in Mali after all the suffering I passed
through Please, get back to me as urgently as you can so that I will
furnish you with all the details and also give you the guidelines on
what to do and how to do it.Thank you for your time and may Allah
guide and protect us all.
Mr Ibrahim .B. Doumbia
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