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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: CE.O
Reply-To: <alessiageorge@outlook.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2015 20:48:44 +0000
Subject: Good Day
Dearest,
Greetings and best regards.
My name is Alessia George .
I am a young girl of 26 years from Ivory Coast.
I wrote to you with faith and I am confiding on you with hope that you will help me out.
My late father and Mother were killed during the war in our country Ivory Coast by the rebels. My late father deposited the sum of ($ 6.5m) Six Million, Five Hundred thousand Dollars in a bank before he died.
He used my name as the (Next Of Kin) for the deposit as his only daughter and he gave instruction that the money is not for withdrawal until it is transferred to foreign partner account or when I will be up to 30 years of age.
I am presently Sick and helpless.I talked to the bank and they agreed and asked me to appoint my foreign partner so that they can now transfer the money.
I plead to you to assist me to claim this money to your country and help me to relocate to come to live in your country.
I will give you a nice amount as compensation for your help to secure this money to your country.
I will give you more details as I hear from you.: alessiageorge@outlook.com
Thanks and best Regards.
Alessia George
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Anti-fraud resources:
