419 scam: "Benny" <info@benny.com> Urgent Assist.

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

Home

About Us

Spam

419/Nigeria

Fraud

Contact

"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:
- "good day friend" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "hundred thousand 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)
- ",500,000" (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)
- "there is no risk involved" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- "mrbennyjoseph@live.com.au" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Benny" <info@benny.com>
Reply-To: mrbennyjoseph@live.com.au
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 23:24:52 +0530
Subject: Urgent Assist.

Good Day Friend,

I am Mr. Benny Kanarathil Joseph, Principal Assurance manager for the HDFC Bank in India. I contacted you concerning a very viable business opportunity which could be of immense significance in our financial lives at this critical time of global financial recession. It is regarding the estate of a deceased client who shares the same last name with you and an investment portfolio (with a sum of US$13,500,000.00 -thirteen million, Five hundred thousand United States dollars) placed under our bank's management some years ago.

Upon maturity of said investment, our client didn't show up after a reasonable period of time and out of concern, an investigation was conducted and it was confirmed with concrete evidence that he was involved in a ghastly accident in China when on a business trip. It was also discovered that he died after attempts to revive him failed.

What I propose is that since I have exclusive access to his file and share the same surname as my client, you will be made the beneficiary of these funds.
PLEASE NOTE that there is no risk involved in this process. I am on ground to ensure everything is successfully concluded.
If you are interested, please do contact me for further details. Please do reply me via my personal email address:

mrbennyjoseph@live.com.au

Regards,
Benny K Joseph.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam