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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:
- "death certificate" (this phrase is often used in inheritance scams such as next of kin or https://www.419scam.org/419-murdered-businessman.htm">orphan scams. )
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- 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.
- brucebrunop@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Drink Micheal" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <brucebrunop@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 07:25:25 -0500
Subject: Hello My Friedn
Hello Dear
I write to you in good faith and trust that you will take a moment to
consider the contents of this letter. My name is Mr Drink Micheal. I
write you in respect to our late customer who share same surname with
you. He was found dead in his apartment in 2007. Autopsy result
showed that he died as a result of heart attack. For the past seven
years his account in our bank has been dormant and no one has come
forward as his relative. I was his account officer to this account.
After so much thought I decided to make a search to see if I could get
to any of his relatives because the funds would soon be classified as
“UNCLAIMED”. This is the reason of my sending you this letter. I can
present you to the bank as our late client's beneficiary next of kin
because of your name identity. I will provide all the legal papers
from the British Court to prove you as the beneficiary next of kin to
this account. I will give you more details if I can be assured of your
ability to treat this issue with every bit of confidentiality and
maturity putting my integrity foremost. PLEASE PROVIDE ME WITH YOUR
DIRECT MOBILE TELEPHONE NUMBERS IN YOUR REPLY TO THIS MAIL. I WILL
SEND YOU A COPY OF HIS DEATH CERTIFICATE BY POST ONCE YOU RESPOND TO
THIS LETTER. SEND YOUR REPLY TO MY CONFIDENTIAL EMAIL AT
brucebrunop@hotmail.com
Best Regards,
Drink Micheal
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Anti-fraud resources:
