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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:
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "David Enu" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <davidenu247@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2011 02:10:50 +0330
Subject: Unclaimed Fund for Claims, Mr Lius Ching is here to claim it now
International Commercial Bank.
Accra Ghana.
Attn: sir,
Dear Customer,
Ref: Unclaimed Fund for Claims ($10.8M) :
A Chinese American, Mr. Lius Ching, was at the bank to make claim and further process your fund payment for a swift wire transfer from the bank miscellaneous escrow deposit vault account XXX12131967131484US/MoF. Are you awared of his coming to the bank ?
You are further advised in your own interest as the sole signatory and beneficiary of this fund to contact your account manager and the head of the banking operations for urgent assistance and further directives as regards to release and swift telegraphic wire transfer of your long overdue fund.:
Dr. David Enu ( The Head of Banking Operations. )
Telephone: +233545631997
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Anti-fraud resources:
