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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. Francis Asare" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <francisc10@e-mail.ua>
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2013 02:41:54 -0800
Subject: Flie Reference GH002/BOG/13
We received a worrisome report from Mr. Peter Williams that you the beneficiary of this email address is dead. Are you alive or dead? The reason for this question is to be sure and to avoid releasing or making a wrong payment to Mr. Peter Williams.
He said that you are dead and you have given him Letter of Authorization before your death to claim your payment. However, we told him that what is holding the transfer of $6.5Million is CERTIFICATE OF FUND OWNERSHIP which is $260 only and that the funds has been approved for transfer in your favour. And also we asked him to call back tomorrow, to allow us confirm from you first. Are you aware of this? He is ready to obtain the CERTIFICATE OF FUND OWNERSHIP which is $260 only. Note that this is very urgent as your fund will be release to him within 48hours. So if you are alive please quickly get back or call me Tel: +233231164806.
Thanks for your understanding,
Francis Asare
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Anti-fraud resources:
