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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:
- "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "contact me immediately" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "confidential business" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: mr zongo komi <mrzongokomi15@keypost.net>
Reply-To: mrzongo@yandex.com
Date: Fri, 6 May 2016 21:36:33 GMT
Subject: FROM THE DESK OF MR. KOMI ZONGO.
FROM THE DESK OF
MR. KOMI ZONGO.
Confidential Business Proposal!!
My name is Mr KOMI ZONGO the manager of Auditing and Account Department in
Bank Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. I Hope that you will not expose or betray this
trust and confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of
our both families.
I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($25.5) million to
your account within 11 or 15 banking days. This Money has been dormant for
years in our Bank without claim. I want the Bank to release the money to you
as the nearest person to our deceased Customer (the owner of the account) died
along with his supposed next Of kin in an air crash since July 2003.I don’t
want the money to go into our Bank treasurer as an abandoned Fund. So this is
the reason why I contacted you so that the bank can Release the money to you
as the next of kin to the deceased customer.( Mr. Morris Thompson) Please I
would like you to keep This proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are
not interested.
Here is the sharing ratio; you will get 50% as your share, while I get 50% for
me. If you can help me, please contact me immediately with the required
Information listed below
Your Full Names......................... ......
Phone Number .............................. ...
Your sex........................... .........
Age........................... ................
Occupation.................... ................
Country ................
Yours
Faithfully,
Mr KOMI ZONGO
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L'absence de virus dans ce courrier électronique a été vérifiée par le logiciel antivirus Avast.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
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Anti-fraud resources:
