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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.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447031825009 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: Barrister Dagogo Thomas <bar.thomasdagogo02@yahoo.com.hk>
Reply-To: thomasdagogo02@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:42:10 -0700
Subject: MY LATE CLIENT FUND
Dear Sir,
I am contacting you to know if we can be honest to each other and invest this fund which belongs to my late client.
The trust firm has contacted me for the claim but as you know I cannot claim it since they knew me as the lawyer who signed the document for the deposit.
If you can assure me sincerely that you will let me have part of my share as soon as you receieve the fund in your account, then forward to me a valid account details, phone number and your contact address.
Call me:+447031825009
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Dagogo Thomas
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Anti-fraud resources:
