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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: "Dr. Peter Deppe" <mustafa1962@att.net>
Reply-To: deppe_peter@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2011 08:10:14 -0800 (PST)
Subject: establishing business cooperation
Compliments my good friend,
I communicated with a view to establishing business cooperation with you. I have already sent this letter by post a month ago, but I am not sure if the letter gets to you since I never heard from you, I have to email it.
I want to re-profile the sum of $48.5million USD which is the Excess profit I made as a fund manager and wish to move it out from Fidelity Investment; United Kingdom which I intend to invest in your country in an area you shall advice. Right now am in United Kingdom on official duty, as fund manager I'm in a humble desire of your assistance and willing to offer you some percentage of the total fund for such assistance.
Make effort to update me if you are interested in this proposal so as to let you know how to go about it.
Your Sincerely,
Dr. Peter Deppe
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Anti-fraud resources:
