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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)
- "huge amount of money" (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)
- "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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- jamesnew888@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Francis James" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hermanj94@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:48:24 -0400
Subject: Re: I Demand Your Trust
Dear sir/Madam,
My Name are: James Francis from United State . I was personal account officer of the late Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi for 25year, before his dead on 2011 he ask me to transfer a very huge amount of money , $20m (Twenty Million US Dollars) to a commercial bank in Malaysia (Chase Bank) for a twenty five story’s building he wanted to buy in SARAWAK MALAYSIA without a beneficiary name because of the nature of his country, Since after his death no one has come for the claim of the money due to the fact that there was no beneficiary to the fund. Now the Bank (Chase Bank) is asking me to present the beneficiary of the money that they need to transfer the money back to the owner since the account is dormant for a long time now. After going through your profile and that of your company I believe you are the right person for this job since your company’s business correlates with a kind of business I would like to invest my own share of the money when is finally transferred.
But right now my healthy condition and security in my country I cant transfer this fund to my personal account rather i want you to assist me to receive this fund"
If you would assist me with this I will compensate you with 30% of the total sum and at the same time invest my own money in your company’s business.
More details will be send to you when I receive your interest response.
Thanks and best regards
James Francis
TEL: +17326595513
Reply: jamesnew888@aol.com
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