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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:
- "cotonou" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: From Neville and Linda Haskins <john.o5@att.net>
Reply-To: nevillelinda1@msn.com
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 04:22:11 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: From Neville and Linda Haskins
Hello My Dear
My name is Neville Haskins ,it gives me a great Pleasure to write you after viewing your email today which really interest me to have communication with you if you will have the desire with me so that we can get to know each other and see what happened in future. It's my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I and my younger sister Linda Haskins,intend to establish in your country. Again My name is Neville Haskins and am here in Cotonou,Republic of Benin West Africa with my Sister Linda Haskins and we Cairo Egypt but herein Cotonou as a result of the war in my country. We entered as a result of the war in my country which lead to the death of my father and mother living me and Linda Haskins alone on earth and the war is still on if you have time to watch BBC or CNN . Though I have not met with you before but I believe,one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed sometimes in life. There is this huge
amount of Nine million U.S dollars,which my late Father kept for us in a security storage house here before he was Assassinated by unknown persons as war going on. Now me and my sister decided to invest these money in your country or anywhere safe enough outside Africa for security and political reasons.We want you to help us to transfer this fund to your country for investment.
If you you can be of an assistance to us we will like you to tell us what you will take from us as compensation or percentage from the total fund. Sincerely Yours. From Neville and Linda Haskins
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Anti-fraud resources:
