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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:
- "dear beloved," (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "barrister" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
Fraud email example:
From: johnson <rabiab@cpd.go.th>
Reply-To: johnson <koffijohnson40@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 13 May 2018 03:54:20 +0700 (ICT)
Subject: can i confide in you?
body {height: 100%; color:#000000; font-size:12pt; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;}
Dear Beloved,
I am contacting you in respect to the death of your relative , who left an unclaimed fund in the bank for some years now and he is a national of your country.
I want to let you know that iam his personal lawyer when he was alife and iam in good position to stand for the cliam with my good surport as the personal family lawyer that has all legal documents for the cliam of the fund in your favour.
Please confirm this message to enable us established further comprehensive communication on this legal issue for good.
More detail information on the legal matter will be relay to you as soon as you respond quickly to this message.
Yours faithfully,
Barrister koffi johnson
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Anti-fraud resources:
