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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "diplomatic courier" ("diplomats" who perform deliveries of cash or other valuables to you only exist in 419 scams)
- "courier service" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "John England" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jengland@skymail.mn>
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:43:26 -0000
Subject: Message From John England
Dear Friend
I hope my e-mail meets you well. I am in need of your assistance. My name is John England of the Engineering Unit of the US Military here in Baghdad Iraq; we have about $10 Million US dollars that we moved out of the country in two digital boxes. My partners and I need a good partner out there, someone we can trust to receive the funds on our behalf.
This money is part of the crude-oil money that we discovered in Baghdad and note that this money is 100% legal and risk free. This money has already been moved out of Iraq through a Diplomatic Courier Service as a Family Treasures to a secured security and finance company abroad, The important thing is; Can We Trust you once the funds gets to you to take out 30% as your share and keep the remaining 70% for us.
Your own part of this deal is to find a safe place where the funds can be sent to, ours is sending it to you safely. Just to let you know that this is real, kindly open the link below and read the BBC news by yourself.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm
If you are interested I will furnish you with more Details upon receipt of your response. But I can assure you that the whole process is simple and we must keep a low profile at all times.
I look forward to your reply and co-operation.
Regards,
John England
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Anti-fraud resources:
