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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 message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Brown James" (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2016 16:35:57 +0800
Subject: Information
Good day,
This is my second message to you. I want you to front at the beneficiary of the sum of US$5m of someone I know but he is deceased. He died with wife and children. He left an instruction at the bank the money is domiciled that in a event of his death I should contact anyone with the same surname identity with him to claim the fund.
Before his death he gave me information about the money he has in the bank and the account number and instructed that in an event of his death I should search for anyone that has the same surname identity with him to contact his bank as that is what he agreed with the bank in the mandate form of the bank whilst opening an account that his next of kin is anyone with the same surname identity.By presenting you the bank will have no problem but to honor the mandate of the deceased
I am compelled to do this because I would not want the bank to push the fund into the government treasury after 7 years as unclaimed inheritance or use it for other purposes.
I will send you the information of his bank to contact as soon as receive a positive acknowledgment from you which also serves as acceptance to proceed to receive this fund in your account.
Yours faithfully,
Brown James
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Anti-fraud resources:
