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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "can i trust you?" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "lome togo" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- williammoise2013@rediffmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: william moise <willi@libero.it>
Reply-To: williammoise2013@rediffmail.com
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2013 18:44:07 +0100 (CET)
Subject:
My Dear Good Friend,
My Name is Mr. William Moise,a banker, in Lome Togo in west Africa region. can
i trust you? i have a customer who is one of the oil magnet and gold dealer in
Ghana who is banking in our bank and was killed 11 month ago with his entire
family when arm robbers attack his estate where he was living with his entire
family members and left with no money in his house. in our bank procedure when
a customer died and no one comes for his money until 12 months that money will
be confiscated and send to the countries central bank. now, i have make
enquirers and found out that he is the only son of his parents who died few
years back after his death with all his entire family meaning that no one can
come and claim the money.i am a Ghanaian as well who is working in the branch
here in Togo and that is why i go into this enquirers because this money in
question has only 1 month left to be confiscated and that is why i contacted
you to help stand as a next of kin because the costumer is a foreigner to claim
this money instead of going into this countries pocket .Based on the fact that
this is a business, I propose that 50% of this fund for you and 50% for me. I
will give you more detail of the transfer process as soon as you show your
interest in this transaction through my personal email address
(williammoise2013@rediffmail.com)
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Anti-fraud resources:
