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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "consignment " (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)
- "keep this confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- 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.
- alisowsierra@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: alimu sow <alisowsierra@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2017 13:46:17 +0000
Subject: From Alimu
Dear Friend Keep this confidential
I am the director of the foreign remittance department here in our
bank and property Magnate, he is from your Country, also referred to
as my client.
I would like you to stand as the NEXT OF KIN / relative to the
deceased client in our bank office , who made some deposits of some
money 50.Million USD and a consignment of 6Kg of gold for safe
keeping with our bank here in my country Lome-Republic of Togo. Bank
(NAME WITHHELD). He died without any registered NEXT OF KIN and as
such the funds now have an open beneficiary mandate.
If you are interested please try and get back to me so that i can give
you comprehensive details on what we are to do. I urgently hope to get
your response as soon as possible. Please reply through the receipt of
this mail; sharing ratio stands 50% for you and also 50% for me.
Kindly contact me at () to enable me to give you the full details of
this transaction for your better understanding.
Skype ID :
Kindly forward all the required information’s to me urgently.
1. Full names :--
2. Occupation :--
3. Home address :--
4. Age :--
5. Telephone number :--
6. Skype address :--
7. e-mail address:--
Alimu Sow
(alisowsierra@gmail.com)
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Anti-fraud resources:
