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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: "Sharon Lee" <luvito@aol.com>
Reply-To: sharno_lee@yahoo.pl
Date: Thu, 02 May 2013 02:39:51 -0500
Subject: Will you be of help..
I meant an African guy on dating site in which he convinced me to come down and live with him pretending to Love me, after coming down from the States with a enough money in which i intended investing with and even went to the extent of selling my father’s properties(USD4.5million) he is trying to do away with my money. I'm a foreigner here and it is dangerous for me here, this is why I need your gesture assistance. Will you be of help? Sincerely yours, Sharon Lee.
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Anti-fraud resources:
