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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: "howardesty" <howardesty@sendilty.org>
Reply-To: john_yeboah@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2013 00:31:45 -0700
Subject: Re,
Gooday,
I am Mr John Yeboah a citizen of federal Republic of Ghana.I have in my
bank the existence of a large sum of money that belongs to a customer who
is a foreigner like you.
The fund is now without any claim because he and his entire family died in
an auto crash here in Ghana in march 2006.
He was working here as a contractor and till date no one has come to make
claim of the funds.
I want your cooperation so as to make the bank send you the funds as the
beneficiary and next of kin to the funds.This transaction will be of a
great mutual assistance to us.
At the receipt of your reply, I will give you details of the transaction. I
will also send you a copy of the Deposit Certificate and also access into
his online account so you can see his statement of
account on line your self.
Warm Regards,
Mr John Yeboah.
Account Officer.
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Anti-fraud resources:
