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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:
- "to your nominated bank account" (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)
- "million 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)
- "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)
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: bank of china <bankofchina.china4@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 19 May 2015 21:51:41 +0400
Subject: REPLY URGENTLY
Dear Sir.
My Name is MR CHENG. and I am an investment consultant working with Bank
of CHINA as an Auditor .I will be happy to work this deal out with you if
you have a corporate or personal Bank Account and if you are capable to
keep TOP SECRET.I need strong Assurance that you will never let me down, if
I transfer this money to your account.
During one of our periodic auditing I discovered a dormant accounts with
holding balance of 5,000.000.00 (Five Million UNITED STATES DOLLARS) this
account has not been operated for the past years. The reason why I
contacted you is that I want us to work together to transfer the funds out
of my bank into your bank account or any other account of your choice. I
will be pleased to see if you can help me and also be a good and trusted
person. Once the funds have been transferred to your nominated bank
account, we shall then share in the ratio of 60% for me, 40% for you. Get
back to me as soon as possible via the below e-mail for more details.
I look forward to hear from you soonest.Thank you for your time and
attention.
Warmest regards,
MR CHENG
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Anti-fraud resources:
