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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:
- "huge deposit" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs Elim" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ioaan.stancu@yahoo.ro>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:52:28 -0500
Subject: the national council for childhood / motherhood
My name is Elim, financial secretary of the Egyptian National Council for women (ENCW) under Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak;
she was before now the chairperson of the advisory board of the national council for childhood / motherhood and president of national council for women.
She was also the architect of countless programs that aim to improve the quality of life of individuals from birth to adulthood with government and international funding.
Following her existing family ordeal, she advice me to quickly move out a huge deposit in one of her son's safe keeping account in Ghana to somewhere else safer.
Please understand I cannot stand in the forefront of this transaction, for this reason I decided to come to you for support.
Upon hearing from you, I will not hesitate to supply more information for reclaiming deposited funds as soon as is possible.
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Anti-fraud resources:
