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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "international court of justice" (not involved with lotteries)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Kwame Kofi" <salehi@iran-carbon.com>
Reply-To: kofikwame1960@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 12:46:11 -0500
Subject: Await your response
Dear Sir/ Madam,
Permit me to introduce myself, I am KOFI KWAME a consultant with a gold
refinery in Ghana on short visit to Ghana the sitting
president of SUDAN REPUBLIC Commissioned me to look out for investment
manager for him. The idea is to manage his vast estate across the globe,
the stern from the fact that the (ICJ) international court of justice
have issued a warrant of arrest on him, he currently has over 250million
dollars in Europe and large quantity of Gold as the investment manger you
are entitled to 30% of 6the total funds. The reason is that he can not
come out openly to lay claims to this funds because of the present warrant
of arrest by the ICJ.
Please notify me of your interest through this email
address;kwame101@outlook.com
The transaction is 100% risk free as all document neccessary to put the
transaction through are all in place.
Best Regards
Kwame Kofi
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Anti-fraud resources:
