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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:
- "remain blessed" (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Grace Garneey <mgwills1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Grace Garneey <ggarneey@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2015 19:23:28 +0900 (JST)
Subject: My project letter.
Â
Â
My Dearest,
I am sending
you this private email to make a passionate appeal to you for assistance,
IÂ took this decision to contact you because of my health condition and
for the facts that my husband relatives wants to size everything and throw my
adopted son William out of my inheritance. So I want to use this little time I
have to achieve this arm by safe guarding the future of my adopted son. I
am Mrs. Grace Garneey Wilson  married to Mr. John C. Wilson who before his
death was an Agriculturist and international Crude Oil Merchant and was
assassinated by his business associates in Saudi Arabia during his business
tour. We were married for 18 years without a child.
My Husband
left the sum of US$18.2million in one of the prime bank in Republic of Cote d’
Ivoire for the establishment of his agriculture investment production in
Republic of Cote d' Ivoire . I decided to seek for your kind assistance for
the transfer of my inherited fund into your company bank account for
investments in your country and to enable you take care of my
adopted son William in his further education in your country. I will also want
you to use 15% of the fund to assist the less privileged children in your
country, while 15% of the total will be for your compensation in respect of
your integrity and devotion to execute this project. I do need your devoted
partnership as I cannot handle this project for now due to my present health
problem of lung cancer.
I look
forward for your interest and willingness in this project by writing back to me
.IÂ Â Â want your maximum cooperation as confident.
Thanks and
Remain Blessed,
Sincerely
Yours
Mrs. Grace
Garneey Wilson
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Anti-fraud resources:
