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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.
- 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.
- drk22427@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Kevin Kwesi <kevinkwesikevin5@outlook.com>
Reply-To: <dr.kevin_k1@yahoo.fr>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 12:21:58 +0000
Subject: Re: Reply
Good Day,
I work with a bank In West Africa, Accra Ghana.I have a business transaction for you.
In
my department we discovered an abandoned sum of Three Million Five
Hundred Thousand USA Dollars.In an account that belongs to one of our
foreign customer who died along with his entire family in war in Iraq.
Since
his supposed next of kin died along side with him at the war,there is
nobody to claim the left over balance in the account.It is therefore
upon this discovery that I and other officials in my department decided
to seek your assistance and present you to the bank as his Next of kin.
If
you accept i would give you the guide lines of how we can achieve this
transfer of the money to your account,and we will share the money
30-70%.I expect that you will give me your telephone for easy
communication with you and for more details. Please reply me on this
E-mail: drk22427@gmail.com if you want to work with me.
Best Regards
Dr. Kevin Kwesi
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Anti-fraud resources:
