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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 us 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: "Miss Thitima" <collinsmorisfree@yahoo.de>
Reply-To: mthit221@live.com
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 14:41:58 -0000
Subject: Greetings to you
Greetings to you
I believe you are a highly placed person considering the fact that I got
your email from a human resource database of your country. I request you
treat what I am about telling you with seriousness and confidentiality.
Well, I am Miss. Thitima from Thailand, a banker. I was the account
officer to a late customer (name withheld for security reasons) who was an
exporter of rice from Thailand. On the 21st of July 2008, he died in his
sleep as a result of heart related illness. Before his death, I helped him
deposit the sum of 12.3 million US Dollars as fixed deposit with our bank.
The said deposit has long matured and no one has not shown up for the
claim. All efforts made to reach any of his relatives have proved
unsuccessful and the money deposited will soon be lost to the government
if the claim is not made immediately.
All I require now is your honest cooperation to enable me present you as
the beneficiary of his deposit in order to claim the deposited money with
our bank. It does not matter if you knew him or not or whether he is
related to you or not, you can successfully make the claim as long as you
are not here in Thailand. Everything will be made easy by me once you are
ready to co-operate with me. The fund shall be shared into two equal parts
between the both of us when the claim is made. I guarantee that this will
be done under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any
breach of the law both here and in your country. If you can help, write
back for me to give you more details.
Thank you.
Miss. Thitima
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Anti-fraud resources:
