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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:
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Abdel Mustafa" <aaabbbdelm@gmail.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: abmustafa50@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2015 16:53:56 +0600
Subject: From: Abdel Mustafa
Compliment of the day
I am Abdel Mustafa,son of Dr.Fidel Mustafa of Libya who was confidant
to Late Muammar Gaddafi,former president of Libya.
The Libya crisis compelled our family to Exile/asylum.
Billions of United States Dollars was moved out of Libya government
treasury by the ex-president.
My mother and I want to move usd64m which is deposited with our
fathers name to your custody/account for safe keeping and investment
on behalf of our family.
Presently Muammar Gaddafi has died and he can't ask my family about
the fund as our father was assassinated as a result of the crisis.
Upon receipt of your reply,we shall discuss partnership terms.
Please let this remain a top secret between you and I.
Now our family is in Benin Republic on asylum/Exile.
Faithfully,
Abdel Mustafa
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Anti-fraud resources:
