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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: "Mr Scott Jewell" <jj_walker01@aol.fr>
Reply-To: mrscott_jewell@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 18:31:45 +0100
Subject: REPLY URGENT
- This mail is in HTML. Some elements may be ommited in plain text. -
DEAR .
I wish to inform you that I have finally found a willing investor who is ready to assist us financially to complete our transactions.
I have also agreed with the financial investor that when we finish our transaction, 15% of the total funds involved in this deal will be given to him for his assistance.
Procedure: You will need to open an account with some prime banks in your country. Get all the online/login information about the accounts and pass same over to me.Since we dont have money on our own to complete this transaction, the investor will now be sending money in batches to the accounts you have opened.
In turn, you will send the monies back to me so that I will be able to finish the process of getting all our funds from where it is trapped.
Please if this arrangement appeals to you, kindly get back to me without delay so that we can start as soon as possible.
Note that you are no longer going to make any financial commitment to this deal until all funds are wired into your account. But ensure all loans to be given by the investor is returned for the purpose for which he is sending it for.
Please respond without delay.
Mr Scott Jewell
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Anti-fraud resources:
