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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. David Ramsy" <contato@marinhodespachantes.com>
Reply-To: <wendychim1@outlook.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2014 15:49:35 -0800
Subject: Re: I am in Possession Of Gold I need Your help
Kindly accept my apology for sending unsolicited mail to you. I believe you are a highly respected personality, considering the fact that I sourced your profile from a human resource profile database on your country. Though, I do not know to what extent you are familiar with events.
I am Mrs Wendy Chim, an independent contractor and a research analyst to Newmount Gold Mining Limited, Ghana. I am contacting you in reference to the incident that occured recently where about 124 chinese workers were suspected of illegal gold mining.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/15/ghana-deports-chinese-goldminers
You were listed as a predecessor for the claim of 400kg of Gold Bars which was left in our custody by Xinhua Tan and his associates before their encounter with the authorities.
Our services aim to provide you with a complete service so we will set-up and administer Trusts, carry out the administration of estates and prepare and administer powers of attorney. All the papers will be processed in your name and favor.
All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.
Yours Faithfully,
Mrs Wendy Chim
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Anti-fraud resources:
