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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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Dennis Roberts <dennisrobert2010@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Dennis Roberts <headoffice1@cantv.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:00:56 -0800 (PST)
Subject: hello!
Please my good friend,
I am the General Audit Manager, Accounts Department in our bank. I have the
opportunity of transferring the sum of (120 million USD). This fund originally
belonged to one of our bank Customer who died in the year 2002. The money will
be transferred in bits.
My request for a foreigner to stand as next of kin in this business is because
of the fact that the customer is a foreigner. Based on the fact that this is a
deal, I propose that 50% of this fund go to you, while 50% will go to me. I will
give you more detail of the transfer process as soon as you show your interest
in this transaction.
Thanks,
Dennis Roberts
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Anti-fraud resources:
