419 scam: Alex Dear Friend, Your Urgent Assistant Is Needed

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

Home

About Us

Spam

419/Nigeria

Fraud

Contact

"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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "my direct line" (a "direct line" in a scam usually means an untraceable mobile phone number used by a scammer in an internet cafe, a redirection service number that forwards to a mobile or a free voicemailbox in a different country.)
This email message is a next of kin scam.
This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447924573508

Fraud email example:

From: Alex
Reply-To: <williamsalex532@yahoo.es>
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 23:12:46 +0200
Subject: Dear Friend, Your Urgent Assistant Is Needed

Dear Friend, =

=

My name is Alex Williams and I work with a Bank here in London-England, The=
name of the bank is Metro Bank London (England). We had a Mr. Allan P. Smi=
th, customer that had a deposit of US$43.5M (Forty Three Million Five Hundr=
ed Thousand United States Dollars) before he Died in a plane crash with his=
wife and only Child about 8 years now (January 30, 2006) and since he died=
, we in the Bank here have been expecting his/her next of kin/relative(s) f=
or the inheritance of the deposit, but none has surfaced.
=

The policy of the Bank however stipulates a limited time period for such in=
heritance to be made or the fund will be written off going by the record of=
the incident, the time limit for the claim is closing up. In this consider=
ation, I am contacting you to seek for your kind understanding and sincere =
co-operation to claim this inheritance for our mutual benefit.
=

If you can stand as the next of kin in this project, success is assured bec=
ause I am in possession of the personal file jacket of the deceased which c=
ontains every needed information about the account and the deceased and you=
and I stand no risk of any kind because I have enough information to suppo=
rt you in claiming the inheritance. The proceedings of the transaction will=
be shared 50% each after Expenses are reimbursed.
=

Kindly indicate your willingness by return email or you call for more infor=
martion, and we shall proceed with the initial step for the claim. The enti=
re project is expected to last for about ten working days. =

my direct line is +447924573508.
Best Regards,
Alex Williams.=20

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam