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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: "Novi Khotimah" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <novikhotimah@bigstring.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:48:24 -0700
Subject: I am waiting for your reply. From Novi Khotimah
My name is Novi Khusnul Khotimah. I am from Indonesia but living in Libya. My parents were recently killed by a bomb attack by Ghadafi's men. I was in school when they told me that our home has been bombed by Ghadafi's men. My parents were seriously wounded and rushed to the hospital. They later died in the hospital. My father was a very rich man in Libya before his death.
Before his death my father deposited a cash amount of 4million dollar with a finance company. He stated that the money will only be released to me when I am married. This is because he believes that I am still a very young girl and cannot manage such amount alone. He believes that if I am married, my husband will help me manage the money very well. In fact, he stated that the money will only be released to my husband.
The reason I am contacting you is this:
I want to present you as my husband so you can help me claim the money. I don’t want to wait until I finish my education here. Because of the current war in Libya, anything can happen anytime. I don’t want to take chances. This is why I want to present you as my husband, so the money can be released to you now.
Please let me know if you can allow me present you as my husband, so I will give you details of my plan. I am waiting for your reply.
God Bless you.
Novi Khusnul Khotimah
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Anti-fraud resources:
