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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Josan Anderson" <abcedar@cantv.net>
Reply-To: andersonjosan@cantv.net
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:56:29 +0800 (SGT)
Subject: TREAT IT URGENT
Attn Director
Please allow me to intimate you with a business transaction that would
benefit both of us.
My name is Anderson Josan , I am looking for a reliable person who can
assist me in the claim and transfer of 16 Million Euros.
This amount was realized from over-invoiced contract amount awarded by my
Ministry in 2006 to expatriate companies. The contract amount was
deliberately overestimated to read more than the actual cost of the
project thus leaving a surplus of 16 Million Euros. However, as a staff I
cannot claim this money without a foreign partner who will act as the
contract beneficiary and as such, entitled to receive the funds as
payment.
Please contact me through my email so I can give you further details about
this transaction.
I am willing to give you 25% of the total amount after the transfer, the
rest will be held and released
to me.
I will explain further when I hear from you.
Regards Anderson Josan
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Anti-fraud resources:
