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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:
- "power of attorney" (with your bank details and a power of attorney form criminals sometimes empty bank accounts)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
Fraud email example:
From: TONY EDWARD <t.edward103@gmail.com>
Reply-To: tonyedward401@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 05:55:29 -0700
Subject: A power of attorney was forwarded to our office this morning by two
gentle men, one of them is an American national and he is MR DAVID DEANE by
name while the other person is MR. JACK MORGAN by name a CANADIAN national.
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A power of attorney was forwarded to our office this morning by two
gentle men, one of them is an American national and he is MR DAVID DEANE
by name while the other person is MR. JACK MORGAN by name a CANADIAN
national. This gentlemen claimed to be your representative, and this
power of attorney stated that you are dead, they brought an account to
replace your information in other to claim your fund of $10.5 Million
USD which it is right now lying DORMANT and UNCLAIMED.
TONY EDWARD
TONY EDWARD
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Anti-fraud resources:
