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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs Kate Crawshore" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <katecrawshore@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:09:46 +0100
Subject: URGENT RESPONSE REQUIRED!!!.
Attn: Beneficiary,
This is to inform you of a very important information which will be of a great help to redeem you from all the difficulties you have been experiencing in
getting your long over due payment due to excessive demand for money from you by both corrupt Bank officials, highly placed official with IMF. It may interest you to know that reports have reached our office by so many correspondence on the uneasy way which people like you are treated by Various Banks world wide and we have decided to put a stop to that and that is why i was appointed to handle your transaction. Reply with immediate effect and we shall give you further details on how your fund will be released.
Mrs. Kate Crawshore.
IMF representative
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Anti-fraud resources:
