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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- davtmrii1@yahoo.fr (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. David T." <davvtumo@yahoo.fr>
Reply-To: moridav52@yahoo.fr
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2011 18:26:20 -0000
Subject: Partnership proposal.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I want to introduce myself and this business opportunity to you. My Name
is Mr. Tumori David and I work as the head of contract approval
department with a government ministry here in Benin republic. I wish to
know if we can work together as partners as there is a pending business
project I have at hand ready to be executed without difficulties. The
business is fully risk free because I have fashioned out means to give it
an excellent outcome.
To throw light on this business deal, one of our registered contractors
who has completed his contract supply with our ministry died without any
registered business partner in his file and i have just noticed this
recently. He supplied and installed industrial equipments to our industry
value at Euro 9.8M [Nine Million Eight hundred Thousand]. I seek your
partnership to enable me transfer this funds to your account as his
business partner/new beneficiary using my position in the office as the
head of the department in our industry to perfect the transaction and I am
open to negotiate your percentage. Your sincerity and attention is highly
needed in this transaction due to its nature and urgency.
If you are interested, please get back to me and forward your full names
and telephone numbers. You can also contact me through my alterantive
email address as follows davtmrii1@yahoo.fr
Best regards,
Tumori David.
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Anti-fraud resources:
