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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: "Geraldine Akins" <geraldine.akins@transmarketline.biz>
Reply-To: jbrown@bizunit.net
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2015 07:34:52 -0400
Subject: Reply
Sir
How are you today? I am writing you again to remind you about my first
email to you on the 11/06/2015 upon which I very surprised I did not
receive your
response as to wether you will be able to assist me and my children on the
project at hand.
However, incase you have forgotten the email I am talking about, in the
said email of 11/06/2015, I stated that my children and I need you to
help us establish a business in your country and also relocate to
continue our lives there as our lives are under threat here in our country
Zimbabwe.
The money to be used, is currently being held by Bank Of America who has
been authorised by my late husband's contractee (Ministry Of Mines And
Power) to release the money to my late husband's business associate's
account whom his account information appeared in the invoice submitted to
the contract owner by my late husband before his death. And his
associate's account information was included in the invoice because that
is the company my husband
used to get the contract from the Government since we the white race
Zimbabwe citizen are not considered worthy of getting any contract from
the Government due to the President bid to chase all the white race
Zimbabwe citizen out of the country. But I have contacted the family of my
late husband partner and they have agreed to give us a letter to Bank Of
America to have the account changed whichever account we want. And it is
important I change the account information
to any foreign account because if the money is paid into the account of my
late husband associate's account, his family will not release the money to
us and if the Government gets to know that the contract was executed by my
late husband, the money will be seized and return to the Government. So I
have to use a foreign
account in your country to receive the money and relocate with my children
to invest and continue our lives. So please help us in this issue as you
stand to be greatly rewarded.
I wait for your reply for to enable me send you contract information for
your confirmation before we move forward.
Thanks and God Bless You
Geraldine Akins
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