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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found 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: Mr Franklin Potter Williams <franklin_potte@yahoo.pt>
Reply-To: Mr Franklin Potter Williams <mrfranklinpwilliams@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 09:45:00 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Happy New Year
Dear friend,
It is disturbing and confusing to bring this confirm able and obvious reality to you when there exists all kind of fraudulent propositions in the internet targeted to deceive people.
And this further makes things much more difficult to relate and communicate this genuine opportunity that i now have in my hands.
I am a staff Prudential Insurance & Assets Management. London . Therefore, i am reliably informing you that a former Libyan oil minister ,Mr Shukri Ghanem who defected from Muammar Qaddafi's regime during the Libyan crises died in Vienna and left the deposited sum of £13M with Prudential Insurance & Assets Management company, London where i supervises as the Files/Record officer.
It was confirmed and verified in the report i presented to my company that you were left with the deposited fund on trust as the next of kin. (I sorted out your contact in the internet and included it in my company's record books)
I will not afford to waste this opportunity by securing this unclaimed fund through your support and avoid my company from re-directing the fund to it's account as unclaimed asset.
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Kindly position yourself to claim this fund. It is 100% free and without any criminal implication . The late depositor Mr Shukri Ghanem is dead and gone.
I proposes 50/50 (%) for this fund to be shared for both of us. Quickly get back to me by forwarding your personal details .
Sincerely,
Mr Franklin Potter Williams.
Prudential Insurance & Assets Management.
London. United kingdom.
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Anti-fraud resources:
