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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:
- "million us 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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: BANK OF GHANA <philipjonathan5@gmail.com>
Reply-To: payoffices@postino.net
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:43:57 -0700
Subject: GOOD NEWS
Minister Of Finance
Federal Republic Of ,
Ghana.
This is Mensah Kofi Minister of finance Ghana. Please there is a
little problem with our delivery agent who suppose to deliver your two
new ATM CARD from our bank as your compensation from United Nations.
Right now our agent is at your International airport dealing with the
security agent and the could not allow him pass through the airport
just because of the INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY PERMIT LETTER and the
security insist that he must pay for the international permit letter
before he will be allow to deliver your package to you so please get
back to me so that we can look for solution to this problem and the
agent will deliver your package to you and return back to Africa
immediately.
The value of the card is Two Million US Dollars from United Nations
and you are permit to withdraw $5,000 every 24hrs from the card so
please re-confirm your house address, id card and direct telephone
number for easy communication and for more details feel free to
contact me on this telephone number +233247726086 or
payoffices@postino.net to get solution to this problem.
Regards
Mensah Kofi
Minister Of Finance
Accra Ghana
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Anti-fraud resources:
