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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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr.Fleming" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <acctjfleming@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 10:32:09 +0100
Subject: Re:Come In!
Hello!
Greetings to you, I hope you receive this email in good time; with due respect to your person and with much sincerity of purpose I make this contact with you as I believe it will be of great benefit to you. Permit me to introduce myself since we’ve not met or have any previous correspondence in the past, I’m the Chief Risk Officer Halifax Bank of Scotland UK. In mid July 2013 the British Bankers Association (BBA)-Scottish Records Association published a list of dormant accounts originally opened by foreigners in the UK. Recently upon routine inspection I came across a dormant account with huge balance that can be linked to you legally.
This account has been dormant for the past four (4) years without any possible record of the beneficiary. During my private investigation I discovered that you bear the same surname with the deceased customer as such can be link to the account legitimately then we share the proceeds 50/50, if we don’t claim this funds it shall be reverted to the government treasury as unclaimed funds at the end of next month. This process is completely legal and risk free, your role is to represent the deceased as beneficiary to the funds as the surviving relative and family heir because nobody will ever come for it since there is no such record attach to it. I shall facilitate the legal documents to back the entire process up legally.
The Claims Resolution Tribunal has been mandated myself to report all unclaimed funds in my bank for permanent closure of accounts and transfer of existing credit balance into the treasury of Scottish government as provided by the law for management of assets of deceased beneficiaries who died interstate (living no wills) without any records. Your earliest response to this email will be highly appreciated.
Regards,
Mr.Fleming
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