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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.
- 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.
- +447045785788 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Miho Blitivic" <andersondavid@ymail.com>
Reply-To: miho_blitivic@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:28:10 -0500
Subject: Re:Business.
=A0=20
Dear Sir,
I am Mr. Miho Blitic a native of Croatia based in London. An Arab made a dep=
osit of $7.9M in our vault branch where I work and he
died with his entire family in a car bomb leaving no next of kin.
If you choose to stand as my deceased client's next of kin pls reply for mor=
e details so that I can provide you as the next of kin to the bank and so th=
at both of us can use the fund for a tourism investment in your country.
You are free to call me for more discussion any time.
Regards,
Mr. Miho Blitvic.
+447045785788
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Anti-fraud resources:
