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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: runsovannacbk@gmail.com
Reply-To: 508953698@qq.com
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 10:40:18 +0800
Subject: Letter of Intent
Dear Friend,
I am Mr Run Sovanna, the business bank manager of auditing and accounting department.I gone through your profile and decided to write to you. I know that this letter may be a very big surprise to you because you don't know me,but knowing somebody starts in a day .It is my interest to contact you in respect of our client from your country who share almost the same name with your name and he open a draft account in the year 2001 in my bank and he leaving nobody as the representative of his account.The reason of contcat you i want to present you as the representative because is from your country and also you have the same name with him. I will use my position and influence in our bank to make sure they release this money to you for us to share. I shall explain in details when I read your reply.You are my first contact, I shall wait for days and if I do not hear from you. I shall continue with my search, Waiting for your reply.
Thanks and best regards
Mr Run Sovanna
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Anti-fraud resources:
