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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "MARCUS PETERSON" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <marcuspeterson55@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 15:37:32 +0800
Subject: PROPOSITION
I am Marcus Peterson. An attorney at law. I have a Client of mine that has the same last name with you who died in a car crash in London with his family on 5th of November 2001. he was an oil merchant and contractor around Europe and Africa. He has been my client for over 11 years before his death. since then i have been managing his properties, and the money for the contract he executed which I monitored the payment as his attorney amounted to (9.8million GBP) had been in his bank account. And the bank has mandated me to provide the next of kin or have the account confiscated within a short period of time. since after his death i have made tremendous effort to locate any member of his family but to no avail. Hence, i have contact you as the last resort because you have the same last with my client. Therefore your consent is needed by me to present you as the next of kin. I have all documents that would confer you the legal right for the claim before the money get confiscated or declare unserviceable by th
Best regards,
Marcus Peterson Esq.
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Anti-fraud resources:
