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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 friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "liberia" (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.
- 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.
- +447045776899 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
Fraud email example:
From: Rolex Watch Industries <rolexind@live.com>
Reply-To: admrolex@live.com
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 04:14:58 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: business inquiry
Dear Friend,
I am Dr William Peru the project director of Rolex watch Industry situated at 124 New Bond Street in London Tel: +447045776899 and We want to come to Nigeria in search of raw material named OPAL but we have not been to your country Nigeria for the first time and our High Commission advised that we should look for a local Representative or Agent who will assist us to make inquiry of the product before we start coming into Nigeria to avoid falling into a wrong hand in Nigeria.
However when we placed our advert on internet that we got
reply from Japan that Nigeria is highly blessed with mineral resources, that
there is a Mining Company called Co-operative Mining Nig Ltd that deals with
the material in Nigeria. They said that the General Manager (GM) of the company
is called Chief Engr CLEMENT ONU with Tel: 08059969304.
We would like you to call the company on behalf of my company and make inquiry of the product OPAL and if the inquiry is true place order of 1000units for us, ascertain the price they sell in your country and try to know their location so that if the inquiry is through we can then discuss your commission and how we are going to come into Nigeria through your direction.
Please we formally buy this product from Liberia and Afghanistan at the cost of $1,250 USD per units and try to ask them the price in dollar and don't let them know that you have foreign interest to avoid price inflection. Try to call me when you are through.
Yours faithfully
Dr. William Peru (Project Director)
Tel: +447045776899
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Anti-fraud resources:
