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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)
- "trunk box" (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)
- "trunk boxes" (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)
- "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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Samer Mohammad Ahmed" <bwvdnk@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: mana4me2000@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:31:45 -0200
Subject: BENEFIT
Dear Friend,
Hello, I am a single dad, I work as a senior Sailing Officer with military
Cargo Ship. I am looking for a serious partner. I sent this mail from our
ship on top of the ocean. Me and my colleague discovered two metallic
trunk boxes in the ship engine room when we are fixing some technical
fault containing 35kg of gold bars and USD2.7 million United States
Dollars. The two metallic trunk boxes are deposited with a security firm
before we embarked on this journey.
I am looking for a reliable person who I can entrust these two metallic
trunk boxes into his/her care for investments in his/her country until I
arrive from my trip. I am contacting you to stand on my behalf for the
release of these boxes to you due to some urgent message from the security
firm because the situation of my job at the moment will not allow me to
lay hands on them right now.
Kindly get back to me if you have any interest.
Your faithful,
Mr. Samer Mohammad Ahmed
Senior Sailing officer
Military Cargo Ship.
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Anti-fraud resources:
