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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Russell E. March" <afreddickson@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: ruselmarch@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 18:24:15 +0000
Subject: MY DEAR FRIEND
--
Dear Friend,
I have made series of efforts to reach you on telephone concerning your
funds which was discovered our financial firm.
I discovered that your funds was floating in an account with a financial
firm (my branch) and the money could not be transferred because of lack of
proof for the source of the funds also the transfer was not authorized by
you since your name was in the document and also you have spent a lot of
money without getting any positive result.
I had to trace the documents to find out that the funds original belongs to
you and I decided to contact you so that you can have a smooth transfer. I
will appreciate if you can offer me 5% of the total money so that I will
work with you concerning this issue but please the most important is to
keep my identity confidential as it is
against the policy of our firm.
The account where the fund is deposited is currently withheld and if you
accept the agreement of offering me 5% of the funds then we can work and I
will guard you on the step on how you can get the funds released to you.
I will be waiting for your call once you accept my proposal and I promise
you that the funds will be accessible under 6 days.
You can email me back with your telephone number so I can call you at
better time for deep conversation on how to move forward.
You are expected can email me back immediately and once I have your return
email with telephone number I will open communication with you by telephone
for a a better explanation.
Thanks
Yours faithfully
Russell E. March
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Anti-fraud resources:
