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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)
- ",500,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Alex Danso" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <alxdanso@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 22:43:28 -0000
Subject: i need an urgent response
Dear Friend,
My name is Alex Danso a senior officer Ministry of Mines and Energy, Ghana. I write to seek your help to enable me transfer a sum of $7,500,000.00 with your bank account so that it will not be traced in Africa. Its a contract payment approved and forgotten by the Government due to a new regime that took over office.
This is not a joke but a real transaction and you will be entitled to a 30% of the total fund transferred to your account and 10% will cover any expenses that will be made during the transfer since I will not be involved in the process of the transfer to avoid suspicion by the Ministry.
I will give you the full details of the transaction as soon as I hear your positive response to willingly be a partner to this transaction.
Thanks as I look forward hearing from you soon.
Mr. Alex Danso
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Anti-fraud resources:
