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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:
- "hundred thousand united state dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "your urgent reply" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Fatima Muhammad <fatimamuhammad@outlook.fr>
Reply-To: Fatima Muhammad <fatimamuhammad1010@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2017 14:29:52 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Hello My Dearest
Hello My Dearest
Good day and how are you doing? I hope my message will meet you in good health condition which is very important to me, please my name is Fatima Muhammad an orphan girl of 24 years the only child and daughter of my late parents. please it is my pleasure to contact you today for a business partnership investments projects which I intend to establish in your country with my inherited funds of (US$ 2.5, Million Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United State dollars which I inherited from my late Father deposited on my name in the Fixed Deposit Account with UBA Bank.
Its very painful to tell you that my late father was poisoned to dead by his greedy younger brother who capitalized on the fact that My late father has no male child to inherit his wealth because of the Africa tradition and cultures. My mother
died when I was only 2 years old.
due to the pressure I am getting from My late father's younger brother and his family made me to contact you today believing in you to help me provide empty bank account where the funds will be transfer for my urgent relocation to your country for investments and my education, they have seized all my late father's properties and now they wanted me death by all means so that they will go to the UBA bank to claim the funds.
Sincerely speaking in the name of god I wish to offer you 30% of the total funds as compensation for your effort to help me, please you should kindly reply back to me immediately to enable me tell you more details about me, I will stop here for now while waiting for your urgent reply as soon as possible before end of today if you think you can help me out of this problem.
Thank you for your wiliness to help me
Yours Sincerely Fatima
Muhammad
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Anti-fraud resources:
