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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Robert Bruce <chantal.dunoir@gmail.com>
Reply-To: r.bruce86@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 00:32:12 +0200
Subject: From Mr.Robert Bruce
Dear Friend,
Please consider this mail serious despite the fact you did not expect it.hope
you are doing well.
My Name is Mr.Robert Bruce. I am the head of contract approval department in a
certain ministry here in Cotonou. I wish to know if we can work
together? I will
like to use my position in the office to recommend you as the business partner
to a deceased contractor name(with held)who died some months after the
completion of his contract project with our organization without any
registered
business partner in his file.The deceased contractor has unpaid
contract balance
payment of SIX MILLION THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR($6.3M) for supply
and installation of Equipments to our ministry.
If you are interested, please let me have your TELEPHONE NUMBER and FULL NAMES
to enable me give you comprehensive details and procedure on how you will
receive the fund for our own benefits. I look forward for your quick response.
Note; the procedure for the release of this payment is a straight process that
will not incriminate you in anyway what so ever.
Sincerely,
Mr.Robert Bruce
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Anti-fraud resources:
