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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: "Edwin Moore" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <edmoore1985win@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2012 10:38:15 +0200
Subject: Business Proposal!
Attention Please!
I got your contact on my search in the internet for a reliable person in the oversea country so that you may help me out in the transferring of my heir (35million usd) to an overseas bank account and also looking for your cooperation in helping me establishing some lucrative business investments in the overseas country with this funds. I am a refugee in Ghana, denied from being involved in any banking activity in Ghana and i wish to quickly relocate to the overseas country with my deposited funds which are presently with a vault in Accra-Ghana.
Urgently indicate your interest to this proposal as am willing to make an offer of 20% of this funds to you for your kind help and send me your telephone numbers on your reply to me for our oral communication too.
I expect your quick positive response to help me out.
Sincerely,
Edwin Moore
Refugee
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Anti-fraud resources:
