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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)
- "liberia" (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.
- brendafreeman38@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Brenda Freeman" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <brendafreeman38@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 03:02:10 -0700
Subject: From Brenda Freeman
Dear Sir/Madam,
I hope that this message gets to you in an optimum condition of health. My name is Brenda Freeman a citizen of Liberia and the only child of Engineer and Mrs John Freeman. My late father worked as an expatrate engineer with the Ashanti gold mining company in Ghana. Two years ago when my parents visited Liberia they were brutaly murdered by some unknown gun men and left me an orphan.
The reason why i am contacting you is to seek your assistance to stand as my foreign beneficiary due to the agreement my late father signed with a safe keeping company in Ghana were he deposited $12.5M United states dollars. I plead with you to consider this proposal and also accept me to be your daughter. I also would like you to invest this money in your country while i complete my education as well in your country. When i get a reply from you i shall discuss with the safe keeping company and also my late father's attorney in Ghana and forward to you the origal copies of deposit that was issued to my father at the time of depositing the funds with the company. Please i hope you do not disregard this message because you don't know me but please consider it and get back to me.
Sincerely,
Brenda Freeman
Email:brendafreeman38@hotmail.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
