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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 sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs Mariam Ibrahim" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mariamibraa001@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:55:56 +0100
Subject: Consider this Apllication
Attention: CEO
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing this email to seek your good support to help me and received the sum of 80.milloin British Pounds which my husband left before he died, this funds is in a security firm in United Kingdom.
The money is deposited in an escrows account for investment.
I am from Iraq and presently i am in United Kingdom taking treatment as i am not health ok to handle this by myself.
My only son Muhammad is 18 years old schooling in U K, I planed to use the money to invest in a lucrative business in your country such as Real Estate, Oil Industry Investment.
Kindly let me know if I can trust these funds on your care so that I can forward you the needed documents to enable the security firm Normalize the funds and transfer funds to your bank account.
I am hoping to receive your urgent attention as I am very sick and about to die.
Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Mariam ibrahim
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Anti-fraud resources:
