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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:
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united state 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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Rodrick <dmabou65@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Mr Rodrick <mr.rodrickmack22@yahoo.fr>
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2015 23:59:48 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Please can I have my trust and faith in you in this transaction please respond back!
My dear good friend I know this will come to you as a surprise because you do not know me I am Mr.Rodrick Mack I work in the Eco-bank Cotonou Benin republic of west Africa, auditing and accounting department I got your contact in my search for a honest person through one of my colleagues here in the Eco-bank who said that I can confidence in you I want you to help me clear this safe box that is already in overseas which I shipped through our Eco-bank accredited security company agent but the contents of the box is ( $12.8 Million united state dollars ) all in $100.00 bills, belonging to our Bank late customer who died earlier this year in a tanker fire clash along with his wife and four children they were involved in Benin petrol tanker explosion incident as people were siphoning petrol the explosion result lost of life killing at least 54 people and many injured including my client and his entire family as they where driving home for weekend stopping on
visiting their site where people were siphoning petrol the tanker caught fire and explode our Bank client and his entire family was among the last 16 people that died since then I have made several inquiries to your embassy to locate any of his extended relatives this has also proved unsuccessful please email me back asap so that I will give you the full the details of this transaction 40% of the ( $12.8 Million united state dollars ) will be for you and your family while the remaining 60% will be for me and my colleague at the office over here get back to me asap for the full details regarding this funds,
Yours faithfully,
Mr.Rodrick Mack
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Anti-fraud resources:
