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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: "Mrs. Victoria McNeil" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrsvictoria@qq.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2015 21:09:27 +0100
Subject: YOUR REPLY PLEASE
My Dear,
I am Victoria and I am now 69 years old. I am currently hospitalized due to recurrent health failures. I lost my husband, Adam McNeil three years ago in Network.
I am contacting you to help me with the claim of funds deposited in a security firm by my late husband just before he died. I have just been contacted by the firm that I have just a month to claim the funds else the U.S.A Government would confiscate the funds as they have been there for quite a while now since my husband died. I had been contacted severally about claiming the funds in the past but I have not been able to do this because of my health. It is important that I find someone to do the claim for me now that an ultimatum has been given.
I will need you to process the claim of the funds on my behalf and I will hopefully meet up with you after my health is better. If you will be able to do that for me, then I will forward the details of the security firm and the amount of money and all documents involved to you. I will also present you to the firm as the one to claim the funds on my behalf.
Mrs. Victoria McNeil
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Anti-fraud resources:
