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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:
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447042035673 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Don Eric" <mrdanielsmith42@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mrdoneric@rocketmail.com
Date: Fri, 9 May 2014 13:41:18 +0600
Subject: From Mr. Don Eric
--
Attn:
My name is Mr. Don Eric. I work as the operational manager in account
management section in charge of credit and foreign bills of one of the
prime banks here in London. On a routine inspection I discovered a dormant
domiciliary account with a Balance Of (Forty eight million two hundred and
twenty three thousand POUNDS STERLING) On further discreet investigation, I
also discovered that the account holder has died long ago with his family
on a fatal Auto-accident leaving no beneficiary to the account and no other
person knows about this account.I am in close contact with the manager of
the bank here who is my partner and he is willing to approve the transfer
to any reliable and trustworthy foreigner with foreign bank account because
the former operator of the a/c is a foreigner and from Australia in
particular. I am certainly sure that he has no written or oral WILL
attached to the account ,no beneficiary and nobody will come again for the
claim of this money. It is only a foreigner who can claim this money with
legal claims to the account holder which I will provide to you if you are
interested, therefore I need your cooperation in this transaction. The
difference in country of origins is not a hindrance to the success of this
transaction. This money will remain useless in this dormant account if I
did not transfer the fund out to a foreign account.
I will provide the necessary information and documents needed in order to
claim this money. I only need your cooperation as a foreigner to provide
your safe bank account information for the transfer. At the conclusion of
this transaction, your share will be 25% of the total transfer sum, 70% for
me and my partner while 5% will be set aside for any expenses both parties
might in cure during the process of the transfer.
Let me hear from you URGENTLY.
Best Regards,
Mr. Don Eric
Mobil: +447042035673
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