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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr Hamidul Haque" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <haque_hamidull@yahoo.co.nz>
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2012 18:30:28 +0100
Subject: My offer.
Dear Prospective Partner,
An Irrevocable Credit Instruction has been issued to conclude the official statutory process of payment to foreign contractors for the Second quarter of this fiscal year .The Irrevocable Credit Instruction is issued in favor of all foreign expatriates and contractors as payment for consultancy services rendered. After reviewing official records of previous transactions as the project coordinator,I made some important confidential findings which confirmed that there is inadequate documentation of records to complete the process of payments in favor of some of these foreign expatriates and contractors.Consequently I have made private arrangements within my department to process the statutory claims of this sum of money in favor of any foreigner who will be recommended as a contractor and whose name and bank information will be submitted alongside other contractors in my official report to the Federal Executive Council to receive the sum of US$17.5 million .
Please send your response and your private telephone number for further details if you can confidently handle this transaction. I wait for your urgent response.
Regards,
Mr. H Haque.
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Anti-fraud resources:
