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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million us 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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr Johnson <ezzatmansour@sbcglobal.net>
Reply-To: johnfeedman111@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:04:35 -0800 (PST)
Subject: REPLY FAST
My name is John Feed I am an American soldier, I am serving in the
military of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq ,I am still in iraq
at moment and want to seek your consent at the mean time, I and my
superior moved funds found in container and was oppurtuned to be
among the officer sent to monitor the shifting and counting of
this fund and we moved from the total some of the fund up to
$1,000,000.00 (one million US dollars) this money is being kept
safe in a Finance Treasure keeping Company in your country.
Click on this link to read about event that took place here:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm
We need your assistant to help us contact the Delivery Company in your country where the funds is been kept and help us claim the funds as the owner of the parcel. If you are interested I will send you the full details, my job is to find a good partner that we can trust and that will assist us.
Regards
Mr. Johnson
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Anti-fraud resources:
