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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:
- "trunk box" (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)
- ",500,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr.Kojo Jacob" <info@info.com>
Reply-To: cobnuel@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2018 12:39:41 -0700
Subject: urgent!!!
ATTENTION
I want you to look into my proposal and be honest in any assistance you will render to make it a success. I am taking a big risk to disclose something like this to you because it can lead to my sack from office if the authority knows about it. Therefore I would like you to keep this secret to yourself alone.
There is a trunk box with a content of US$16,500,000.00 abandoned in my department (Cargo section) in the Kotoka Int'l Airport for five years with no one coming for the claim.
As the director of the operation in the cargo section, I have the power to release the box to anyone I confirmed as the beneficiary. I would like you to promise me that after we had succeeded in moving the box from Ghana to your country that you will not betray me.
If you assure me that you will not sit on the money after you had received the box in your country, I will draft an authorization letter you will re-write by pen and send it to me for endorsement.
I would like you to confirm your interest in this proposal.
Regards,
Kojo Jacob
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Anti-fraud resources:
