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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: "Clarisse Bakayoko" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <niceme1970@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:24:18 +0700
Subject: Work with me
Hello dear
I am Clarisse Bakayoko and I am 17 years old; I have decided to contact you
due to the maltreatment and injustice I am receiving from my
relatives since the untimely death of my parents in an ill fated air crash.
(You can read the news on)
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Pilot%20to%20blame%20for%20Kenya%20Airways%20crash/-/1056/908184/-/k9hr6uz/-/index.html
They took away everything that belonged to me by birth and threatened to
kill me when I tried to protest.
As God would have it, as I was going through my Fathers file I discovered a
bank deposit papers of $4.1M. (Four Million One hundred thousand dollar
only) I have gone to the bank and confirmed the existence of the money; But
due to my age the bank has refused to allow me have access to the money
until I secure an adult who will stand as a guardian and this is the reason
why I have contacted you to assist me in moving this money over to your
country so that I can come over to continue my life and education while you
take charge of the investment of the money until I am old enough.
If you can sincerely help me; reply at once so that I can give you further
details and also introduce you to the bank as my guardian who will take charge of the money on my behalf.
I look forward to your response and also meeting with you soon.
blessings
Clarisse Bakayoko
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Anti-fraud resources:
