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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:
- "there is no risk involved" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- "foreign exchange" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Kofi Addo" <cofi.addo@accountant.com>
Reply-To: kofi_addo_acc@admin.in.th
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2013 22:15:18 +0200
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?PLEASE REVERT URGENTLY?=
Dear Sir,
I am Mr Kofi Addo of Foreign Exchange department of one of the banks here in Ghana West Africa.
In my capacity as the aforementioned designation I have in the Foreign Department funds deposited by one of the foreigners here in Ghana from Czech Republic in escrow account. The depositor according to records is dead and he used his foreign Partner as the next of kin and beneficiary. On that Note I will want you to act as the next of kin to him and we get the funds transferred to you off shore account and we share it accordingly.
Every expenses incurred will first of all be deducted before sharing. If you are interested to handle this deal please respond. I assure you 100% that there is no risk involved as we will be working with top Government officials. We will change the ownership in your name legally before we remove the Escrow.
Please respond with your full data to enable us upgrade the documents.
Kofi Addo.
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Anti-fraud resources:
