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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 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.
- hassan2020@asia.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Maksim Sadyikov" <maxx70@post.ru>
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2018 12:24:54 +0300
Subject: Urgent Response
Dear Friend,
I am a staff of HSBC Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. I am writing following an
opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to both of
us. In my department I discovered an abandoned sum of $4.2million, In
an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers Late Mr.Paul
Louis an American who unfortunately lost his life in the Tsunami
disaster in Thailand 2005.including his wife and only daughter.since I
got information about his death, I have been expecting his next of kin
or relatives to come over and claim his money because the bank cannot
release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation
to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.
Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin being his only
daughter died along with him in the Tsunami disaster leaving nobody
with the knowledge of this fund behind for the claim.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make business
with you to enable the Bank release the money to you as the next of
kin or beneficiary of the funds for safety keeping and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money
to go back into Bank treasury as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money
remained after all these long the money will be transferred into
banking treasury as unclaimed funds. I agreed that 30% of this money
will be for you as foreign partner, 10% will be use to upset expenses
that might incure on the cost of making this transaction a success
while 60% will be for me. Please note that all necessary arrangement
for the smooth release of these funds to you has been finalized.
Kindly direct your reply to this email id hassan2020@asia.com for
confidential purposes.
My Regards,
Mr. Hassan.
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