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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:
- "dearest one," (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "lome togo" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Jack Bamba <bambabamba@bol.com.br>
Reply-To: Jack Bamba <bamba.jack@bol.com.br>
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 01:04:06 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Hello From Mary jack Bamba
Hello From Mary jack Bamba
Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire
+22892724313
Urgent Attention
Dearest One,
Permit us to inform you of our desire of asking you to be a
guardian or foster parent to us and then help us out in what we are
about to tell you.
I'm Mary Bamba (18) my Brother Jack Bamba (16). We are the
children of Late Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Bamba (Orphans). Our father was a
very wealthy cocoa merchant here in Abidjan, the economic capital of
Cote D'Ivoire. He was poisoned to death by his business associates on
one of their outings on a business trip. Our mother died when we where
babies.
Before the death of our father on Sept. 2012 and before his death he
secretly called us by his sick bed and told us that he has the sum of
Four million Five hundred and thousand United State Dollars USD
($ 4.500,000) deposited in a
suspense account in a banks here in Lome Togo, We now want to
transfer it out and use it for investment purpose in your country
Because of this we are honorably seeking your assistance in the
following ways:
(1) To serve as a guardian to us and then assist us transfer the
money into your bank account. (2) To make arrangement for us to come
over to your country to further our education and then settle there
parmanently. We shall offer you 20% of the total money for assisting
us on the transfer of the money to your account.
Thanks and God bless you.
Best regards,
Mary & jack BambaÂ
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