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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: MR AMOS KIBIRI <kabirukone111@gmail.com>
Reply-To: MR AMOS KIBIRI <dswesi2@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2015 21:24:01 +0900 (JST)
Subject: I am Mr Amos Kibiri from Republic of Togo, I am a banker and I need your help to transfer USD 10.5 Million from the bank where I work. This money belong to one of our customer who died in 2009 and I want to assure you that there is absolutely no risk attached to the transaction. What I need is your sincerity and co-operation to help so that the funds will be processed and transferred. I will give you the full details as soon as I receive your email reply showing your willingness.
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Anti-fraud resources:
