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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:
- "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)
- This email message is a "dying widow" scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Mrs Rebecca Taylor <mrsbecca1@yahoo.cn> (may be fake)
Reply-To: mrsbecca@yahoo.cn
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:26:13 +0300 (EEST)
Subject: manage my fund very carefully
My dear,
I am Mrs. Rebecca Taylor .I am married to Mr. Alfred Taylor who served as an Archdeacon,here in ivory coast for twelve years before he died in 2006.
We have been doing our best to promote charity work anywhere the Lord laid us to.
I have been having Cancer and now my doctor has confirm to me that i would not last more than 6 Months due to the cancer illness. I want to give you this fund which my late husband deposited in the security company to help me establish a charity organization.
My late husband deposited the consignment contained $7.5 Milion in the Security company as family valuable treasure and the security company did not know that the content of consignment is money. So i want you to keep it secret with you until you receive the fund and lodge it into your account for the purpose it made for.
Please always pray for me because i am going pain because of the cancer illness.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Rebecca taylor
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Anti-fraud resources:
