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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Augusta Williams" <ustawills@mail.com>
Reply-To: ustawills@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 09:20:30 -0600
Subject: Personal Invitation..
- This mail is in HTML. Some elements may be ommited in plain text. -
Good Day
My name is Mr. Augusta Williams, An attorney to the Confidential Secretary to the former late President of Libya. My clients have a fund totaling Fifty-Six Million United States Dollar belonging to him.
He wants to invest this fund Into Petroleum strictly in your country as such he requested that I should search for a reputable Personnel who is into
Petroleum Business or any other capable person with whom he will entrust this money for investment purpose.
Following a search on the web, I was well pleased with your contact as such I decided to contact you.
If you are interested, do not hesitate to reply back. Be assured that this fund of my clients has no relationship with Drug, money laundry or any form of illegality.
Hope to hear from you at your earliest convenient time.
Best regards.
Mr. Augusta Williams
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Anti-fraud resources:
