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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: "Richard U.Scott" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <usembassylondon1@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2015 14:41:24 +0100
Subject: RE
DATE: 11h,2015
RE: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LETTER
Dear,
Having satisfied the requirements of the Law guiding this office this morning we the United States of America Embassy in United Kingdom received your long awaiting funds of US$10.5Million from office of Financial Clearing House London, we were notified by United Kingdom Government they are about to pay all our Citizens that is yet to receive their funds that is presently in their country and it happened that your name appeared as one of the people that we will receive their long awaiting funds. We further our response that you should urgently contact this office back so we can give you further details on how your funds that is presently in our custody will be release to you.
Please feel free to contact the undersign if you have any question.
Thank you for your understanding.
Yours sincerely,
Ambassador Richard U.Scott
US Embassy in London.
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Anti-fraud resources:
