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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: "Lorn Chang" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <changlorn2011@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 02:41:03 +0700
Subject: Hello Friend
Hello Friend,
My name is Lorn Chang,The Account officer to Abdul Fatah Younis who was killed in July this year.He deposited some amount of money with our bank early in the year on which i acted as his account officer.
I am contacting you to stand as the next of kin to Abdul Fatah Younis in order for me and you to get this money out and share among our self.
As an insider in the bank and his account officer,i will be providing you with every information needed to necessitate easy and smooth release of the money by the bank.
Be informed that this is risk free and an opportunity for us.In anticipation of urgent and favorable response.
Yours Sincerely.
Chang.
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Anti-fraud resources:
