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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:
- "million united state dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Jonathan Mark <gribeiro1@esoterica.pt>
Reply-To: jonamark2012@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2016 23:41:57 +0100
Subject: Good Day Friend
With due respect to your person and much sincerity of purpose, I make
this
contact with you as I believe that you can be of great assistance to me.
My name is Mr Jonathan Mark. Presently I work in the African development
Bank
as telex manager.I was able to divert thirty five million united state
dollars ($35m) to an escrow account belonging to no one in the bank.The
bank is
anxious now to know who the beneficiary to the funds is, am contacting
you for you
to be the beneficiary to the funds so that bank will transfer the fund
into
your account.Get back to me now more information.
Mr. Jonathan Mark
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Anti-fraud resources:
