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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:
- "barr." (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "lome togo" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: adewigi <richardtupork2@gmail.com>
Reply-To: adewigiwetigoma@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2016 12:20:26 +0000
Subject: please excuse me your assistance is needed
Greetings is me Adewigi Wetigoma a personal attorney to a deceased
person who died in Lome Togo as a result of high winds in the sea
which capsized the boat he boarded and caused the unfortunate deaths
of 36 people including him. I hereby need your response to enable me
give you more details regarding to my late client and he left
US$15.5million, in his account and i have been searching for his
relative but all to no avail, please your assistance is needed to
avoid the bank directors/managers to share this fund within
themselves, please is urgent thank you.
Barr.Adewigi Wetigoma
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Anti-fraud resources:
