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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:
- "million 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)
- "million pounds" (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)
- "courier company" (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: "''Online Condination''" <info@donation.com>
Reply-To: helpdask@yahoo.cn
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:45:29 -0500
Subject: By the grace of God I won a Jackpot Lottery of 318 million
dollars($318 million)
This is a personal email directed to you. By the grace of God
I won a Jackpot Lottery of 318 million dollars($318 million)
and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum of 159 million
dollars ($159 million) last year to 100 people as part of a charity
project to improve a lot of 100 unknown lucky individuals all over the
world.
I have also decide to give 5 unknown lucky winners this year,
If you have received this email then you are one of the lucky recipients
of 1 million pounds and all you have to do is get back to me so that I can
send your details to the delivery courier company.
You can verify this by contacting me for more information.
http://www.vidjin.com/318-million-lottery-winner-shaw-mcbride-gives-away-his-money-through-the-grace-of-god.html
Email: helpdask@yahoo.cn
Best of luck
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Anti-fraud resources:
