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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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)
- "million us 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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- auditor.ericstuck@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Auditor Eric Stuck <erich_stucki@zapp.ch>
Reply-To: eric_stuck@accountant.com
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2015 00:01:45 +0100
Subject: Dear friend
Dear friend,
I contacted you for a good business proposal because you are qualified
to handle it.
I work in a financial institution as an auditor and during my auditing
this morning, I came across the sum of Twenty Eight Million US dollars
(US$28, 000,000. 00) which has been dormant since date of deposit 6
years ago. The owner of this fund is already dead and my bank will
confiscate the funds into their treasury by end of October if nobody
comes for the claim because the depositor has no next of kin. It is not
a good idea to allow few managers of the Institution to get rid of this
fund so I decided to block the account so that it won't appear on our
general computer system. I deem it more profitable to present you as
decease's next of kin so that bank can legally release the funds to you.
I thought about you because I discovered that you bear same family name
with the depositor. As an internal auditor, I will assist you with any
secret information you might require.
if you are interested, please contact me via my home address:
auditor.ericstuck@gmail.com for more details.
Regards
Eric Stuck
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Anti-fraud resources:
