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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 orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Ms Mariam Almaleek <tere_19702003@yahoo.fr>
Reply-To: mariamalmaleek1007@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:18:20 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: From Miss Mariam Almaleek ( please I want your urgent response).
Dearest
Please permit me to introduce myself and my reason for contacting you as we have not met before. My name is Mariam Almaleek (Miss) from Ivory Coast in West African.
I am 22years old and a student. I am the only child of my late parents who died some years back (Mr .Kamal and Mrs Hanifah Almaleek).
There is one important thing i would like to discuss with you. I have an inheritance which was deposited by my late father and this fund i need your help to claim so it can be use for business purposes in your country.
Please let me know if you can assist me on this so i can give you more details about myself and the fund.
Thanks for your anticipated earliest response
Mariam
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Anti-fraud resources:
