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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:
- "await your urgent response" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "barrister" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
Fraud email example:
From: "William Brown" <sap.ant@biz.net.id>
Reply-To: mrbrownwilliam225@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 20:56:51 -0700
Subject: I await your urgent response by e-mail for further discussion.
Hello,
How are you and your entire family? I hope you are all doing very fine. I am Barrister William Brown, a solicitor at law and a personal attorney to your late relative who used to live and work in London-England.
After the death of your relative, I have made several attempts to contact you but I have not heard back from you. The reason I have been trying to contact you is because your late relative listed your name on his last will and testament as his next-of-kin to receive the sum of Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds deposited at his bank in London.
I have sent several emails to you regarding this issue and I am not sure if you got the emails or not but they never return to me as failure delivery. Anyway necessary processes have started for the release of your inheritance of Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds. I will need you to please provide the information below to enable me reconfirm if i am contacting the true next-of-kin to the deceased or not.
Full name:
Contact Address:
Phone numbers:
Occupation:
Date of Birth:
The 10.5 million (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds) would be released to you within 5-10 working days according to the bank and I am working to make sure you receive it within the same period. I await your urgent response by e-mail for further discussion.
Sincerely,
William Brown LLP
99 Gresham Street
London EC2V 7NG
England
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Anti-fraud resources:
