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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:
- "million us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "l.amid@hotmail.com" <l.amid@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: dlami001@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:06:14 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Hello dear
Hello dear
Please kindly permit me to present this crucial issue that requires an immediate attention; how we lost a huge quantity of diamond out of naivety. My sister Cynthia is 17 years old and I’m 21. Our late father was a political adviser to Mr. Alassan Ouattara. The internationally recognized winner of the resent Ivory Coast’s disputed presidential election. I was at the boarding school with my little sister Cynthia when the news reaches us. Our parents were assassinated by the Forces Loyal to the disputed president of Cote d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo, due to my father’s involvement in politics. Our house was burnt down and the compound has become a fearful bush I was forced by starvation to go and unearth a treasure box our Dad buried in our home garden. We found Diamond, jewelries and a certificate of funds deposit $3.8Million US Dollars deposited by our dad. You can see website; http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/20113620246797131.html#
We were afraid to sell the treasures and an attempt to sell a little quantity cost us the entire treasures. Thieves bugged into the place, took the whole treasures and Cynthia was rapped, I was thoroughly beaten and threatened with guns. Now we are left with only the Fund deposit document. I suspect a cocoa trader in our area who bought the little quantity must be involved because I informed him that we still have more of the diamond. After the incident, we had to escape our dear life and across to a nebouring country Ghana. Cynthia and I wish to find a sympathetic fellow from abroad to help us get away from our traumatic situation. We have established communication with the custodians of the funds while seeking for any trustworthy person to acquire on our behalf since we do not have the idea. anxiously looking forward to your response.Kind regards,
Didier Lamid
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