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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:
- "hundred thousand united state 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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. George Paul" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <samuelbrown@yeah.net>
Date: Sun, 4 May 2014 10:44:38 -0700
Subject: Development on Outstanding Payment (Good News) **OBI**
Kind Attention,
we have been having a meeting for the past 4 months which ended 2 days ago with the United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon and other 7 Contents president on the meeting we treated on issue of a scam victim,Contract Payment and Past Lottery Winners compensation which we have concluded two days ago.
The United Nations have agreed to compensate you with the sum of USD $4.500,000.00 (Four Million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars) This also includes every foreign contractors that may have not received their contract payment and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems etc.
We found your name in our list and that is why we are contacting you, this has been agreed upon and have been signed. You are advised to contact our representative Mr. Samuel Brown of the United Bank for Africa (UBA Plc.) and proved the following information to him.
Full Name:......
Country:.......
Delivery Address:.....
Telephone Number:.......
Sex.....and Age.......
Email Address:
Payment Code No.:
United Bank for Africa (UBA Plc.)
Contact Person Mr. Samuel Brown
Email: samuelbrown@yeah.net
Please note that your Payment Code: {UBA/UN-0633/USXX/} is to be kept confidentially for security reasons and should not be shared with anybody. Please use your payment code as YOUR SUBJECT when replying to Mr. Samuel Brown for immediate action.
Your immediate Contact with our representative Mr. Samuel Brown will help you a lot.
United Nation making the world a better place.
Regards,
Mr. George Paul
Assistant Secretary-General
CC: Mr. Wu Hongbo
Under-Secretary-General for
Economic and Social Affairs (U.N)
Cc: Mr. Ban ki -moon
Secretary General (U.N)
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Anti-fraud resources:
