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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 sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Frederick Annan" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <frederickannan45@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 11:55:34 -0000
Subject: Invitation to a profitable business venture
Dear Sir/Madam
Compliments of the day to you.
My name is Mr. Frederick Annan and I am from Ghana, West Africa. I am the branch Manager of a bank in one of the regions of my country.
I have package a deal that will be of mutual benefit to both of us and I want to place it before you for your consideration.
There is this amount of money which with your co-operation we can be able to get out of my bank and transfer to you in your country. The amount involve here is $3.6 Million. It will be a bank to bank wire transfer of this money to your bank account in your country.
Information about this deal, my bank and myself are at this point top secret. But on your indication of interest by reply to this mail, all the information about this deal, my bank and also myself will be revealed to you.
Then we can discuss the sharing percentage of the money.
Please include your telephone/cell phone number when replying this mail. This will make for easy communication.
Thank you very much for your time and warm regards.
Mr. Frederick Annan.
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Anti-fraud resources:
