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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:
- "huge amount of money" (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: Ryan Smithson <smit1hson@westnet.com.au>
Reply-To: Ryan Smithson <amesah@kimo.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2015 12:01:13 +0800 (WST)
Subject: Your Compensation
Attention.
I am F.B.I Ryan Smithson. And I am among the special agent delegated to
Ghana to investigate fraudsters who has been swindling Foreigners that
came for transaction/contracts in Ghana. Please be informed that during
our investigation we got to find out that there is a huge sum of
$6.1million that has been assigned in your name (Beneficiary) and these
fraudsters are busy swindling you without any hope of you receiving your
funds. NOTE: You are not supposed to pay that huge amount of money from
the beginning before the release of your fund.
However, we have to inform you that we have been able to arrest some of
these swindlers in respect of the delay over your funds transfer. As you
can see we have a limited time to stay in Ghana so we will advise you to
urgently respond to this message ASAP. And do not inform any of the people
that collected money from you before now about this new development to
avoid jeopardizing our investigation. All you need to do is to follow our
instruction and your overdue fund will be transfer to you as directed by
the United Nation UN.
We await your response
Ryan Smithson
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Anti-fraud resources:
