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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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)
- "million dollars" (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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- fmaoil7520001@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Allan Mohammed <cca@planet.ro>
Reply-To: fmaoil7520001@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2016 13:37:01 +0300
Subject: Personally Addressed to YOU!!
Dear Friend,
I hope this proposal meets you in a good state of health and I apologize
if you think you receive it as unsolicited mail. I need your help to
transfer funds that accumulated as undeclared profit made by my account
department.
My department handles all investors and Staffs investments/welfare
Accounts and I have smoothly extracted 1.2% from Excess Maximum Return
Capital Profits (EMRCP) on investments yearly proceeds. As experts I've
made over $12.5million dollars from the investors EMRCP within this past
year and hereby looking for a foreign individual that can be trusted to
stand as a Non-Resident Investor to receive this fund as an Annual
investment proceeds from Ghana Oil Company Limited 2015.
All that is required to get the funds transferred out of here is to
program your name on the Foreign-investment account holding the funds.
This will practically make you a Non-Resident Investor of the Ghana Oil
Company Ltd. If you consider it necessary to work with me and will not
term this as a hoax, then I wish to receive your response immediately.
We have up till end of November, 2016 to wrap up this transaction before
the team of our auditors start arriving for the end of the year general
auditing.
I will guide you on how to apply for Closure of the Account and credit
transfer of the funds to your designated bank account and you will get
40% of the funds for your role/assistance.
If you get back to me with your positive response, we will consummate
with the legal programming of your name as Non-Resident Investor and the
funds will be released within one week. Reply to:-
(fmaoil7520001@gmail.com)
Regards,
Allan Mohammed
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