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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: "Mr.Paul Wright" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <crimewatch_aol@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:31:05 -0000
Subject: Crime Watch Re-/BENEFICIARY/ INHERITANCE/ Scammed
Dear Victim,
We are non governmental organization working with the Nigeria police to fight the activities of scam artiste in Nigeria.
We are glad to inform you that we paraded some scam syndicate working here in Nigeria with their agents in London,America and Asia.We got your information from two of them that we have caught and we are still working very hard to catch others.
We have also seized some of their properties here and we are still investigating more.They have succeeded in screwing many Americans and European's a huge some of money.Note that after proper investigations,we will calculate all that they have screwed from each person and dispose their properties to pay back to the victims after which they will be prosecuted.
We will like you to stop further communications with any body that claim to make any transfer to you as their agents are still out there.And you are also to forward all your correspondences with any body claiming to make any transfer to you since you started with them. That will help us for proper investigation. Also let us know and forward to us all the receipt of any money that you have sent to them in order to help us know how much you have been screwed as we are working with the Police to pay back all the victims.
As soon as we hear from you and know how much they scammed from you,we will facilitate our investigation and pay you back your money in full.This is the new policy by the government of Nigeria in order to restore the image of the country.
Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Paul Wright.
For Scam Watch.
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Anti-fraud resources:
