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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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dennis Sanko" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sankodennis@fidelinvest.info>
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:40:47 -0400
Subject: Re: From Dennis
Dear Sir,
I am Dennis Sanko a Sierria-leone citizen. I am in the refugee camp in Ghana. My father was diamond dealer and during the war the rebel kill him and my mother and big sister.Now I is alone and before my father die he deposit $6,000,000.00 with security company.
Now am want you to help me to claim the money from the security company as my trusted partner because of my refugee status I am not allowed to claim the consignment by myself. If you is agree send me your name and telephone number so I will send it to the security company as my foreign trusted partner to be able to start the the process of transfering the money to you in your country after that you will help to take me to your country and I can start to go to school again. I want to become a doctor.
Yours Sincerely,
Dennis Sanko
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Anti-fraud resources:
