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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:
- "your urgent reply" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Rosina Richard <marilobouabre13@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: Rosina Richard <rosinarich03@yahoo.fr>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2014 17:30:06 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Greetings my dear,
Greetings my dear,
I know my message may come as a big surprise to you since we do not know each other. One must risk and confide in another to succeed in life and that is the reason why I take this bold step of faith to contact you to seek for your assistance in receiving my inheritance fund in your country for investment purpose.
Please permit me to briefly introduce myself to you. I am Miss Rosina Richard 20 years old. I have this huge of money deposited in the Bank by my late father and he used my name as his next of kin. I need your urgent assistance to retrieve and relocate the funds to your custody to enable me join you in your country to contiinue my education while you will engage in investing the funds into secured and lucrative ventures of your choice.
I will be expecting your urgent reply so that I can give you further details concerning the funds deposit and directives on how the transfer will be done.
May God bless you.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Rosina Richard.
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Anti-fraud resources:
