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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:
- "sjprescott01@msn.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Simon Prescott" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sjprescott01@msn.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 23:21:08 +0700
Subject: From: Simon Prescott
Greetings,
My name is Simon Prescott an aide to Mr.John Yakubu Yusuf,the Chief Accountant of the Nigerian Police Pension Office.
who was an accountant and the former assistant director in the Police Pension office,was accused of misappropriating
the sum of N20.154B. He was accused of pilfering the sum of N1.3B and N1.7B.Firstly it is important that you understand
why I am contacting you. I intend for us to carry out a transaction to our mutual benefit.I am in possession of $12.5M
belonging to him and this fund is presently deposited in a facility overseas and I have the documents.I would like to hold
back some information for security reasons for now until you respond to me.
Best Regards
Simon Prescott
Email:sjprescott01@msn.com
Tel: +234-1-212-0734
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Anti-fraud resources:
