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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:
- "abidjan" (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: patricia Vincent <patvin002@msn.com>
Reply-To: <patvin1@hotmail.fr>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:10:48 +0000
Subject: Bless you
Dearly beloved,
Greetings, I know you may be surprise to receive my mail due to the fact that we haven't met with each other before, I believe we will know each other better soon.I am contacting you due to the problem on my neck at the moment, my husband was one of the cocoa board directors in Bouake the northern part of Ivory Coast during the administration of president Laurent Gbagbo who was forcefully removed from power and is under trial now in the world court, the rebels arrested my husband and forced him to hand over the documents in his possession, while my husband was under house arrest he instructed that I should look for a foreigner who will assist me to claim his money ($15m USD) in one of the banks in Abidjan so that I his next of kin will escape and relocate with our only son of close to 3 years old that he is not sure they will leave him alive which they later killed him.
Please this is my main reason of contacting you now so I beg that you indicate your interest in helping me and my only son out fast. Once I receive your confirmation of helping us I will forward the contact details of the bank for you to contact them as my foreign beneficiary. I will compensate you with 10% of the total amount when it is transferred into your account in your country. Presently I am in Abidjan but does not expose myself and my little son because of the present leaders that are trying to arrest me and do away with my late husband's properties. I hope to hear from you as soon as possible.
Mr Patricia Vincent.
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Anti-fraud resources:
