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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 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)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: ANNABELLA DAVID <abc00ddd17@gmail.com>
Reply-To: abc00ddd10@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2023 14:06:41 +0000
Subject: Miss. Annabella David.
My dear friend;
My name is Miss. Annabella David, a British citizen; I am currently living
in the city of Abidjan which is one of the cities in Ivory Coast, which is
located in West Africa.
I work in the bank as accountant here in abidjan and the main purpose of
contacting you is this ; there is this man who made deposit of $30, million
dollars in his account in our bank and he use the name of his wife as next
of kin when he deposited this money in our bank and what this means is that
if the man dies his wife will be the person to inherit the fund in this man
account.
The problem now is that this man and his wife were victims of coronavirus
(COVID19) year 2020 and after the death of this man and his wife, I tried
my best to contact the relative but unfortunately there is no other person
in the family left who can claim the fund.
I am contacting you now because of the urgent, if we failed to claim the
fund in the next 30 days bank will confisticate the fund and transfer it
into the government treasury account but if you cooperate with me with your
help we can claim the fund and share it between us 50% for me and 50% for
you.
This business is confidential and I need your urgent response; if your
response delays I may contact someone else for the same business because of
the urgent need to move this fund out quickly to a secured account you may
provide.
Miss. Annabella David.
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Anti-fraud resources:
