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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:
- "chambers" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr.Elvis Kuame" <rsmmmka@live.fr>
Reply-To: elvismensah@o2.pl
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:36:04 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Mr.Elvis Mensah,
>From Mr.Elvis Mensah,
I want to introduce to you a business which will
benefit both of us and earn a good profitable amount out of it if you
can be interested and also be trusted as soon as I receive your response
I will forward full details to you.
My company ran out of stock of this particular chemical which we use
in the production of some animal drugs and this chemical is only found
in your country since ever we started making use of the chemical. And i
only have the contact address of this particular Local Dealer in your
country because i am the company PRO that worked with the former boss
before this present one came inception.
Therefore i will give you the contact of the local dealer in your
country So that you can negotiate from them and sell to my boss at a
very high price.
The local dealer is selling the chemical at
the rate of 35,000 dollars per liter and my boss will buy it from you at
the rate of 65,000 dollars per liter.
And me and you will share our profit which we will make from my
company If you are interested I will forward the full specification of
the chemical to you and the contact of my director so that you can
contact him and negotiation.
Already my company have sent a publication notice to the Ghana
chambers of commerce in-case someone else has the chemical in stock for
sales.
I wait for your reply
Regards,
Thanks
Mr.Elvis Mensah.
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Anti-fraud resources:
