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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: Geoffrey Leslie Cooper <rotimiwiliamsjr@gmail.com>
Reply-To: geofferycooper0001@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 20 May 2019 04:15:36 -0700
Subject: Dear Sir/Madam, your compensation fund of $35.5 Million is ready.
Please reply Asap.
Attn: Sir/Madam,
I am Geoffrey Leslie Cooper from United Kingdom. Please i want
to inform you that your $35.5 Million is very much ready to be release
to you. We discovered that a lot of people are coming to claim in your
fund saying that you sent them. Please did you send anyone to come and
represent you to receive your fund?. Please reply asap so that we will
not release your fund to an impostor.
Please we need the following information of yours
1: Your Name
2; Address
3; Telephone numbers, home/mobile/office numbers
4; Your Company name
5; A scanned copy of your passport.
As soon as you reply i will give you more details as regards to the
release of your $35.5 Million to you.
Regards,
Geoffrey Leslie Cooper.
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Anti-fraud resources:
