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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:
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "the 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)
- "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)
- "courier company" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- "liberia" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "DAVID WATARA" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <davidwatara20072008@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:33:54 -0000
Subject: Good day
Good day,
I am sure this letter will come to you as a surprise because myself who is the writer have not in anyway come in close contact with you except that my search for a good and reliable person I could confined on to carry out successfully a little business I have at hand.
However, scam mails which people send to various individuals and companies on the internet have also made it so impossible for one to do business reliably with other internet users all over the world. I solicit and hope that this letter will not be considered of treated like one of those letters.
I work with the national Security Warehouse in Accra Ghana .This is where the 124 security companies in Ghana keep their abandoned consignments. In all today we have more than 12,678 consignments abandoned here in the warehouse.
>From my close study of the files, I found out that most of them were abandoned as a result of the inability of the owners
to pay for their shipment. This is why most of these consignments that contain quite huge amounts of cash are abandoned.
Now I am compiling the shipment of some 423 consignments cleared by the Ghana Government for delivery to Europe and America. I want to include one consignment which I know that it contains some $3.5m cash .It belongs to a Liberian war Lord who has been confirmed dead.
I only want to use you as a receiver of the consignment .I will take care of the charges for shipment from Ghana because I can accommodate it in the list of consignment already cleared by the Government. We are using the Air courier Company based in London via germany.
If you are interested, comfirm so that I will tell u the information needed for the Shipment .I need absolute trust and confidence.I am waiting for your response.
Thanks,
David watara
National Security Warehouse
Accra Ghana
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