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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)
- "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)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Joy Ngo <monmotandd@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: Joy Ngo <joy.ngo72@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 22:53:39 +0900 (JST)
Subject: =?utf-8?B?UkVBRCBBTkQgUkVQTFnigI8=?=
Dear Friend,
I am Mr David Gyan from Republic of Ivory Coast in
West Africa.I am a branch manager in Bank Of Africa here in
Abidjan.There is a German man name Alfred Bernhard who has a construction
company here in my country who deposited the sum of 19,420,000million
United States Dollars in my bank.The account has been dormant since
three years now and I later find out that the account has no next of
kin.From the information I got the man died after a brief illness in a
German hospital since 2011.Now I want you to stand as the next of kin so
that both of us will claim the money.We will share the money in equal
percentage after we must have succeed.I will use my contact as an
insider in the bank to make sure everything work as planned.Once I
receive your reponse I will now give you more details.
Regards
David Gyan
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Anti-fraud resources:
