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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: Egna martin <egnamartin@ymail.com>
Reply-To: egna.martin@laposte.net
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 01:07:08 +0300
Subject: MY OFFER
Greetings and thanks for the anticipated positive respond that I am
expecting from you. My name is Mr. Egna Martin from Ivory Coast; I
work with the united bank for Africa here in my country. I noticed
recently of an abandoned fund in a certain account that belongs to a
late American industrialist who died a decade ago here in Africa. From
all indication as a banker, I realized that he nominated no one as the
next of kin to the account.
I want you to partner with me in getting the fund moved over to you in
your country. The best part of the whole process is that we are going
to avert the normal bank to bank transfer bureaucracy. I am going to
assist you in the deal so that the bank would move package the fund
into an ATM card in matter of days you would receive the card while I
would join you for onward sharing of the money. The whole money is
valued at $3million.
All what I need from you now is the assurance that you are ready and
would not betray the trust at the end,the sharing ration would be 50-50%
Egna Martin
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Anti-fraud resources:
