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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: Michel Gbagbo <emmanuelajohnson02@gmail.com>
Reply-To: michelgbagbo1974@outlook.com
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2017 21:32:29 +0000
Subject: Please carefully read.
Please carefully read.
I hope my proposal will interest you for mutual benefit to both. I am the
son of the former president of Cote D'Ivoire (ivory coast) in west Africa
Mr. Laurent Gbagbo.
I have acquired a lot of most valuable treasure from my father when he was
in power, such as raw gold bars and dust and a total cash sum of 160
million united state dollars deposited in a security volt here in my
country but it was declared as family treasure to the security volt, which
no one knows even my family members except my father and me, but I have to
relocate the gold bars and dust together with the whole of the amount of
the money to outside Africa for security purposes, for now I believed it is
no longer safe here in Africa continent.
So I am looking for a very trustworthy person or partner who will help me
for relocating the gold bars and dust with the fund to their country and
after some time I will relocate to his or her country for business
partnership in any of the lucrative business you may know well.
So please do get back to me as soon as possible and to indicate your
interest on this very transaction, so that I will send you more information
details about this very transaction before we can move further so kindly
get back to me as soon as possible indicating your wiliness to help me by
telling me more about you and your company or organization that you are
handling for now. Please kindly get back to me as soon as possible if you
are willing to help so that we will discuss the modalities and how to move
forward.
Yours faithfully
Michel Gbagbo
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Anti-fraud resources:
