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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a "Yukos oil" scam. The criminals who send such emails have no connection to Yukos Oil. The emails are usually sent from Nigeria. The only money that ever changes hands in this scam is from you to the criminals.
- 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.
- lariskaya57@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Larisa Sosnitskaya" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <larsosskaya57@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 04:34:17 +0100
Subject: ASSISTANCE NEEDED (pls read & respond) urgent
Dear Friend,
I am Larisa Sosnitskaya and I represent Mr. Mikhail Khodorkovsky the former C.E.O of Yukos Oil Company in Russia. I have a very sensitive and confidential brief from this top (oligarch) to ask for your partnership in re-profiling funds to the tune of US46 Million. I will give the details, but in summary, the funds are coming via a Prime Bank/Financial Institution in Europe which I will disclose to you in due course. This is a legitimate transaction so you do not have anything to worry about as your role in this transaction is totally safe and risk-free.
You will be paid 20 percent as your commison/compensation for your active efforts and contribution to the success of this transaction.
You can catch more of the story on these websites below or you can watch more of CNN or BBC to get more news about my boss.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3213505.stm
http://www.nndb.com/people/633/000025558/
If you are interested, please do indicate by responding to this mail and providing me with your confidential telephone number, fax number and email address and I will provide you with further details and instructions as to how we are going to go about this transaction so that it can be concluded successfully within the shortest possible time with your total and full cooperation. Please keep this strictly confidential and totally to yourself as we cannot afford more political problems. Do respond back to me via this email address "lariskaya57@yahoo.com" so that we can proceed without any delays. I look forward to hearing from you with your indicated positive interest.
Thank you.
Regards,
Larisa Sosnitskaya
lariskaya57@yahoo.com
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