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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: "Hoshiko Zaira" <hoshikozaira111@ensp.fiocruz.br>
Reply-To: hoshikozaira111@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:59:57 -0200
Subject: Dear Counsel
Dear Counsel,
My name is Hoshiko Zaira. I am contacting your firm in regards to a divorce
settlement with my ex husband Allen Hoshiko who resides in your jurisdiction.
I am currently on assignment in S.Korea. We had an out of court agreement
(Collaborative Law Agreement) for him to pay $950,500.00 plus legal fees.To his
credit he has only paid me $251,500 since.
I am hereby seeking your firm's assistance in collecting the balance of
$699.000.00 from him.
He has agreed already to pay me the balance but it's my belief that a Law firm
like yours is needed to help me collect/enforce payment from my ex-husband or
litigate this matter if he fails to pay as promised.
Yours truly,
Hoshiko Zaira
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Anti-fraud resources:
