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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:
- "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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: inf <garfield1@t-online.hu>
Reply-To: hussainmukhtar20@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 01 Jan 2016 22:36:23 +0100
Subject: YOUR NAME IS IMPORTANT
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Dear Sir
I am an accountant, audit section of Hsbc bank Malaysia. There is sum
of USD1, 510.000 in a dormant account of our late foreign client. I
and my colleague have decided to move this fund to your name as the
next of kin considering the fact that you bear same surname of our
late client. Should you are interested to execute this transaction in
top confidence, kindly provide the following details.
Full Names:
Home Address:
Gender:
Nationality:
Telephone Number:
Thanks
Mr Hussain Mukhtar
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Anti-fraud resources:
