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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- bahijaelayeb@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Bahija El Ayeb" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bahijaelayeb@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:38:16 +0900
Subject: Hello My Dear
My Dear,
My Name is Mrs Bahija Mahmoud El Ayeb from Libya,I am writing from Libya. Please in the news you can hear or see what is going on about the uprising in my country Libya about the citizens to remove the President, President Muammar Gaddafi. Please you can check in the news about the uprising in Libya.
My Husband was one of the financial advisers to the president and due to the problem in Libya, he was killed about two weeks ago, I have been in hiding here in Libya due to the problems and killings which have made me to contact you to help me secure large sums of money which runs into Millions Of United States Dollars which the President Muammar Gaddafi gave to my husband when they were still in good terms for investment purposes.
The money is in a trunk box. Everybody thinks I died with my husband in the explosion that killed my husband and my children but I escaped by grace of God.
Please I am contacting you for you to assist me claim the money and have it shipped to your country for a better investment and am ready to give you 40% of the total money if you are ready to help me. Reply me through this email address: bahijaelayeb@gmail.com
Mrs Bahija Mahmoud El Ayeb
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Anti-fraud resources:
