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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: "INVESTMENT FUNDS" <test@vtx.co.in>
Reply-To: thomasbridge12@outlook.com
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2016 07:20:28 +0930
Subject: $1B Investment Funds Available
Dear Sir/Ma We are a financial services and advisory company based in Londo=
n. Our services have been sought and retained confidentially by a top polit=
ician in one of the West-African countries with lot of Money in Cash up to =
USD $1 Billion (One Billion Dollars Only) for investment purposes. However,=
our client needs to engage services of a commodity trader, financial advis=
er, investment banker or a financial institution that they can transfer the=
funds to their possession to manage for a period of about 10 years. Any in=
terested client must travel to meet the representatives of the fund owner t=
o discuss negotiations and have an agreement with them before they release =
the money to them. If you are interested or can assist in handling this ven=
ture, please kindly reply me for further directives. Thanks and best regard=
s. Thomas Bridge
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Anti-fraud resources:
