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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.
Fraud email example:
From: "FRED WILLIAMS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <williamsfred28@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2010 10:22:39 -0700
Subject: Greetings:
Greetings:
My name is Mr. Fred Williams, a lawyer by profession base in London. My purpose of contacting you is for business assistance which both of us will benefit from. I have a client that past away two years ago, and this very client own a company. But after his death the company is not functioning well.
Recently N.D.P are interested to buy the company, they contacted me this morning asking after the next of kin to the company so I told them that I need to get in touch with the beneficiary after that I will get back to them. So I need you as the beneficiaries to enable them buy the company.
I do not want to use some one who base here in London I needs some one that lives in another country to perfect the transaction.
Thank you
I wait for your responds.
Mr. Fred Williams
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Anti-fraud resources:
