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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fund beneficiary" (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)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "economic and financial crime commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: WILLIAM BROWN <william_brown1981@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 05:52:21 +0000
Subject: REPLY SOON
I secretly wish to contact you in regard of $20million USD which was moved from Indonesia to our bank in Nigeria , the said fund was wired to our bank using your name and telephone numbers as fund beneficiary .We noticed that the fund was wired secretly to our bank and the sender (Mr William) was using your name to invest the said fund into Oil business in Nigeria.The sender (william) was questioning about the fund but he made no good report on the ownership and my bank with the help of(Economic and Financial Crime Commission's ) EFCC is working heard to seize the fund soon because the fund sender (Mr william) has abandon the fund and run out of the country for the fear of been jailed.I choose to contact you to work with you and other manager of the bank to transfer the fund to you and at end of the fund transfer the fund will be share . 40% for you, and 60% for the manager of the bank and at end of the transfer we will delete all the information of the fund transfer out from out computer and destroy all the related documents to avoid future trace.You will only need to corporate with us and provide a bank account in your country for us to start making a transfer bit-by bit, the fund will not be transfer at once, it will be on bit by bit transfer to avoid security notice. Please call me on phone let us talk more and details or email your telephone numbers to for a call.Remember to keep the secret of this deal as a muslin , i swear with ALLAH to make sure that this transfer will be top secret and without any risk for you or me.RegardSuleman Saadumanager 1st bank Nig Ltd
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Anti-fraud resources:
