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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million dollars" (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)
- "lome togo" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- 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.
- panoukof@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: koffi panou <koffi.panou@outlook.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 11:22:34 +0000
Subject: Reliable person to assist
Greetings to you and I hope this message meet you in good faith .I am Mr.Koffi Panou personal attorney to my Late client,who died here in Lome Togo and I have access to very vital information that can be used to transfer US$8,950,000.00 Million dollars to any secured account of yours as my deceased next of kin since I have made inquiries to locate any of his extended relatives but without success so I decided to track his surname over the internet.
I have contacted you as a trustworthy and reliable person to assist with me as the foreign partner in the actualization of this project which will be of mutual benefit to both of us.Full details /modalities will be disclosed once I get a feed back from you on this repose and I duly apologize if I interfered into your privacy.
Thanks for your anticipated corporation.
Regards,
Koffi Panou.
E-mail address (panoukof@yahoo.com)
Phone no +22898311286
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Anti-fraud resources:
