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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- 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.
- safiagedhafi@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Safia Gadhafi" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <safiagedhafi@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:10:19 +0200
Subject: Peace be onto you and your family,
Dearest,
Peace be onto you and your family,
I am Mrs. Safia Gadhafi the wife of Muammar Gadhafi of Libya. I am presently in Algeria with my daughter Aisha and my sons.
I am sure you knows all about my family presently, I am contacting you for urgent help to secure in the name of investment in your country my family fund which NATO, UN and the Libyan transitional council have not seen. The amount involve is $80M.
Note; we are not interested on what you are going to do with this money or profit you will make from this fund rather my interest is to have the money back on demand.
If you are interested in assisting us, Your full assistance is highly needed in all participation.
Note also that your percentage for this help could be discuss.
Please forward the following information to this email address. safiagedhafi@yahoo.com
Full name:
Address:
Tel:/fax:
Copy of ID:
Finally don’t forget that it is a top secret therefore only email correspondence for security reasons.
Thanks for your support in advance
Mrs. Safia Gedhafi
safiagedhafi@yahoo.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
