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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:
- "trunk box" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Miss Stella Bayard <addresslink@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: stella_bayard@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2014 06:06:28 +0000
Subject: Hello Dear
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Hello Dear
My name is Miss Stella Bayard, I am a 1st year Business Admin student, The
political problem in my country has today sent me on exile i need help from
you my name is Stella Bayard 21years from Libya presently in Ghana my late
father deposit a Trunk box contain $6.5 Million usd in Security company in
Ghana and I,m the next kin of this fund ,Am contact you to help me to claim
the trunk box out from the security company and deliver to you in your
country and invest in a good business, my late father make agreement with
the security company not release the trunk box to me here in Africa until i
get a foreign beneficiary that can help me to invest the fund out of Africa
because instability of Economic in Africa. Thanks.
Stella Bayard
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Anti-fraud resources:
