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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:
- "death certificate" (this phrase is often used in inheritance scams such as next of kin or https://www.419scam.org/419-murdered-businessman.htm">orphan scams. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "piny hillary" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <pinyhillary@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 18:28:05 +0700
Subject: PLS REPLY TO ME IS URGENT
Dear
My name is Master Piny Hillary the store keeper of a financial film here. I am contacting you in respect to a luggage that was abandon here since January this year. I found that the luggage has been deposited since 10th November 2009 and it was deposited as family treasure but from my research, it contains some cash and some other undisclosed valuables. I am contacting you to stand as the next of kin to this depositor and apply for the luggage to be released to you so we will get it shared among our self. The luggage is bearing Eng Adnad Hussen a Syrian citizen as the depositor who was killed among his family during the Syrian upraising war some months ago. With my efforts I have gotten the copy of his death certificate and can provide it to you with other legal documents when time is needed.
Waiting to hear from you,
Best Regards,
Master Piny Hillary
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Anti-fraud resources:
