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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:
- "dearest one," (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "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)
- "million united state dollars" (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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- 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.
- joesmakoko@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Joseph Makoko <joseph.makok@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: joesmakoko@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:23:45 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: VERY URGENT REPLY NEEDED
Dearest One, Good day to you and your family, I’m in a desperate situation which I need your immediate assistance. Before proceeding any further I will like to seize this opportunity to introduce myself. I am Joseph Makoko the only child of Mr. Jonah Makoko, owner of Alagodo Mining in my country Accra Ghana. You can surf our website for further details: www.alagodomining.T35.com, My father was killed on the 30Th Of November 2010 on his business trip to Abidjan lvory Coast when there was a political crises and I lost my mother in 1999 in a brief illness which took the life of my mother.Right now l am contacting you from UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (Dubai) l ran away from my country because l my life is at stake there my father elder brother want to kill me so that he will inherit my father's properties that is why l ran down to Dubai here. Why l am contacting you is that my father deposited a box that contained the sum of FOUR MILLION UNITED STATE
DOLLARS (4,000.000.00). ln one of the security company in my country but the company did not know the content of the box because my father declared the content to them as FAMILY BELONGINGS just for the safety of the money. Before l move to Dubai here l met the company director and plead to him to deliver the box to me here in Dubai and he agreed to help me in delivering the consignment box to me here in Dubai through a special delivering officer with hope that my father's business partner Mr. Mohammed Yusuf will help me in paying for the delivering charges and take 20% out of the total fund this is our prior agreement but now that the delivering officer has arrive here in Dubai he now change his word that he must take 50% out of the total money if he pay the delivering charges and l refused this is why l am contacting you for you to help me in paying the charges and l am ready to give you 30% out of the total fund. The delivering officer gave me
from now till next weekend if l did not come up with the delivering charges he will return the box back to my country and should he return the box to my country it means I have lost all what my father has suffered for since 1963, Sir. please come to my urgent rescue.
Yours SincerelyJoseph MakokoEmail: joesmakoko@hotmail.com
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