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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:
- "lome togo" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Stephen Mensah <stmen_gh@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: stmensah1000@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:01:40 +0200
Subject: Attn Pls,
Attn Pls,
I am Mr.Stephen Mensah , Staff of a finance company here in Lome Togo named
INTERCON . Indicate your interest to receive the transfer of US$7.5 Million
.
Sharing ratio is 50% for me and 45% for you and 5% for any expenses we might
encounter during this transfer.
You will stand as the next of kin to our late customer who deposited the
fund which is presently in our company that no one comes for the claim.i
will be giving the informations go on here, for easier transfer.
I advise you to keep this as a "top secret" as I am still in service and
intend to retire from service after I conclude this deal with you If you
accept my offer please I will need the following information below to
commence the process.
YOUR FULL NAME//........NATIONALITY//...............TELEPHONE N°//..........
RESIDENCE ADDRESS//.............
Hope to hearing from you as soon as possible for further information to
proceed.
Yours faithfully
Mr.Stephen Mensah
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Anti-fraud resources:
