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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Asante Kwame" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <asantekwame111@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 08:50:28 -0000
Subject: READ AND RESPOND NOW
Hello My Dear Friend,
My name is Kwame Asante and I'm from Ghana. I am sorry for intruding into you like this but I really need a trustworthy person to assist me because my late father deposited about 400kgs of alluvial gold dust in a company here in Ghana and stated that it was meant for his business partner from abroad. My family and especially my late father's brother who is my uncle do not know about this so now so I am urgently looking for someone that I can trust to hand over the deposit certificate to so that you will contact the security company and act as the beneficiary of the gold for them to release it to you. I am willing to split with you after you have assisted me to collect it from the company where the gold has been deposited. I also want to go back to schooling and also invest my part of the funds that will be realized from the sale of the gold in your country of which I would also like you to guide me and take charge till I am able to take care of things my self.
If you are interested to assist me please reply to me without delay and please let me know from which country you are from.
My number is +233232169583
regards,
Kwame Asante
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Anti-fraud resources:
