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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:
- "may come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "inheritance funds" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Tim Rush <adminitrative@mail.bg>
Reply-To: 2832404167@qq.com
Date: Thu, 09 Jul 2015 03:00:10 +0000
Subject: Reply Back
--
l am Tim Rush, an Attorney. l know this proposal may come to you as a
surprise because we have not met before.The reason i am contacting you is
that you share the same surname with my late client.
I decided to track his last name over the Internet to locate any member of
his family hence I contacted you. I have contacted you to assist in
recovering substantial amount of inheritance funds left behind by my client
before it gets confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Security
Finance Firm in where this huge amount were deposited.
I would be grateful if this mail will be favoured with an early reply for
more details via the above email address.
Tim Rush
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Anti-fraud resources:
