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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:
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Miss Rebecca Grossah <ll88ll@rediffmail.com>
Reply-To: grossahrebecca@yahoo.fr
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2013 18:16:57 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: From Rebecca Grossah
Re: Message from Rebecca Dearest One I am Miss Rebecca Grossah, 20 years old and single from Cote d' Ivoire. I am the only daughter and left child of Late Mr. Toure Grossah of the blessed memory who was a cocoa merchant but recently died after a brief illness that lasted for 5 days. I first lost my mother when i was 16 years old. Tears always slip my face each time i remember the events that took my parent's life when i least expected and expose me to struggle for survival in life but for what i am and not for my beauty or family background, i have learn to accept any face challenges. Before the death of my father, he secretly called me and gave me a file containing some documents and One of the documents in the file given to me by my late father was a deposit certificate of (€9.600, 000.00) Nine Million, Six Hundred Thousand Euro in an account his opened with a bank here in Abidjan Cote d' Ivoire of which my name is the next of kin to the account.
In the deposit certificates was written that should incise accident happen to the account owner, the next of kin would inherit the money at the age of 28years old or appoint a representative as trustee who will claim the money on my behalf for an investments abroad. I want you to help me stand as my representative and trustee to claim the money on my behalf for investments in your country. I want you also to promise and assure me that you will always stand by me even after receiving the money in your account. I am with the wish and desire that my freedom and liberty will come through your help. I am willing to offer you 30% of the money for your assistance and you will help me invest the remaining 70% into good investments in your country. I am expecting to see your reply soonest. Yours faithfullyRebecca.
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