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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million 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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Nubia A" <hoggtwo@ntelos.net>
Reply-To: nubiaa@yandex.com
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2019 17:13:41 -0400
Subject: Dear Friend,
From Nubia A.
Banco Pan Americano SA
Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
Dear Friend,
I am contacting you based on a deceased customer of our bank who bear the same surname with you and died in a ghastly motor accident along with his wife and two children and every attempt we made to locate his next of kin proved abortive. The rule of our bank is after some times if nobody comes for the deposit the money will be transferred to government treasury as unclaimed bills.
The reason why i am contacting you is to present you as a the next of kin since you bears the same surname with the deceased customer so that the deceased account will be closed and the account balanced of US$245 Million (Two Hundred and Forty Five million united state dollars only) be re-transmitted to any account you will nominate sanctioned as the next of Kin.
I have all details particulars of the deceased that the bank will ask from you and will send them to you when the time comes.You need not to entertain any atom of fear because this transaction is100% risk free and i promise to compensate you with 40% of the entire amount.
It is clear to me that you might be scared of this proposal, but i want to let you know that i have made solid arrangements of how to successfully make the transfer to you , as an insider, our deceased client is an oil merchant and a subsidiary of Duke Oil ( crude oil trading company )
One passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this matter to a third party,if you do not want to be party to this deal please delete this letter from your email box to avoid any leakage of this information which might be dangerous for me based on my position here
Thanks
Nubia A.
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Anti-fraud resources:
