joewein.de LLC fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter! Free trial for 30 days

"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
• Support our efforts to stop scams!
  
• How to report 419 spam to us
• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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.

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.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "huge sum of money" (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)
  • "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal - arrests of online criminals are rare)
• 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.
  • tonyakan115@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Tony Akan." <tonyakan108@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:43:50 +0000
Subject: THIS IS URGENT INFORMATION

Attn: President/ C.e.o

I am Mr. Tony Akan a Ghanaian Citizen working with the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment for the past 19 Years Now.
I am one of the Three Man Board Contract Award Committee in this sector, sometime ago, a contract was awarded to a foreign firm by my COMMITTEE from the order of the assembly of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment Minister Hon. Stephen Asamoah Boateng

This contract was over inflated to the tune of us$47.5Million Dollars. This was done deliberately in order to compensate some of the members for their active participatory role in the project. However, by virtue of my position as a civil servant sanctioned by Ghana Constitution not to maintain a foreign account, I wish to transfer this fund to any foreign partner that would take me as his very close business associate, I am making this contact because some of the greedy people in the committee may decide to assassinate me and take all the money because this has been their usual practice whenever a huge sum of money is involved here in Africa.

I am also very happy to inform you that with the assistance of my friend here that is a close relation to the Minister of Finance we will move this fund out from Ghana to any country you deemed it fit to be transferred.
Therefore, I am soliciting for your assistance to help me move this fund to any Account of your choice where the incident of taxation will be less.

I also wish to use this opportunity to assure you that this transaction is 100% risk free and also could not cause you any financial loss or endanger you in any way. It would be highly appreciated if you could indicate interest in this business by providing me with full details of your contacts so that we could start the necessary processing of the documents as I know that the approval regarding to this fund for foreign transfer has already been obtained with my powerful connection in one of the local banks here.

However, as soon as I hear from you, I will also provide you with full details. I hope to hear from you so that we could jointly work out modalities for the next line of action to bee taken as the fund is in a bank right now awaiting final release approval order into any specific given information.

please contact me with this email:tonyakan115@yahoo.com

Thanks
Mr. Tony Akan.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam