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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: "Finance minister" <info@diabetesfoundation.org.in>
Reply-To: k.adeosun@yandex.com
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2015 15:05:13 -0600
Subject: Ministry of Finance
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Good day please
An urgent confirmation is required by the presidency for a verification of
your funds beneficiary payment .
The office of the president of the federal republic of Nigeria received a
strong petition relating to your unclaimed funds and the president was not
too please with the content of the petition written to his office on your
behalf the finance ministry was given the mandate by presidency to verify
the situation and come up with our finding in the next three (3) working
days this verification exercise is an urgent issue please Im waiting by to
have the full details of your payment transactions.
Best regards
Kemi Adeosun (Mrs)
Finance minister
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Anti-fraud resources:
