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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:
- "huge amount of money" (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)
- "hundred thousand great british pounds" (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)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Andrew Haldane " <ad.haldane@execs.com>
Reply-To: chsm9009@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2019 18:08:33 +0800
Subject: Private invite (I hope you are interested)...
I have a business proposal I would like to discuss with you. There is an account here in our bank with a credit balance of Eleven Million, Six Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds this money has been dormant for years and as am talking to you now, this said account is without any beneficiary or heir.I have explored all options and decided on executing this deal with a foreigner. Now I want to know if you are capable of receiving this huge amount of money into a foreign account and have 40% of it as your share while 60% will be for me.
If interested, kindly get back via e-mail for more details and i will will give you all the details regarding this account and the transfer as soon as I hear from you and please make this proposal a top secret and delete it if you are not interested
Greeting,
Best Regards,
Mr. Andrew G. Haldane
Tel.: +44 845 132 1017
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Anti-fraud resources:
