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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: "Mr. Desmond Arnold" <dad56321@gmail.com>
Reply-To: aronld0375@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 11:55:01 +0100
Subject: Important information for you
--
Compliments of the season.
My name is Desmond Arnold. I'm the Database Analyst/Foreign Payment
Investigation Director. CBN. I'm writing you to let you know the
reason why you were unable to receive your approved payment from your
friend who promised to help you and from the bank after paying all the
fees charged against you.. Your friend who promised to
help you was only able to use your name and divert your payment from
its original bank to my bank in an attempt to claim it using your
name. That was the reason despite all the efforts you made to receive
the payment nothing was transferred into your account as previously
agreed.
Today I came to you with a good news. I want to tell you that my
office has blocked all the ugly plans your friend has made against you
and your payment by securing your funds in your name. Even as I write
you now, I have your payment file with me and I promise to use my good
office and transferred the funds to you through any means you deem
necessary once I hear from you.
At the moment, I want to advice you to stop any further communication
with anyone including your so-called friend concerning your payment
because as you can see now,
your friend is not in any way protecting your interest. Instead all he
is doing is to use your name and claim your funds against you.
Contact me so that I can use my position in my good office and ensure
that your payment is sent to you and on time too.
Regards,
Mr. Desmond Arnold
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Anti-fraud resources:
