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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: "NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <paulsmnith275@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 20:09:13 +0100
Subject: FUND RETURNS/REPAYMENT OF FEES SPENT
We must first apologize for what our citizens have done to you and we shall make sure you smile again.We are to inform you that we have concluded plans to finally transfer your fund to you but we cannot make this transfer without hearing from you and confirming that you are ready to accept the fund.We are also aware of the issues you had with your attorney which has been resolved at the moment and we would advise you get back to this office immediately so that we can move ahead for the transfer.You are not expected to make anymore payment whatsoever on this transfer for any reason because as we speak the fund is ready to be transferred to any of your nominated Bank account or delivered to your doorstep as you wished.You are
finally advised to immediately download your Transfer Slip and reconfirm your information confirming we are contacting the right person for the transfer.Fill in your information on the attached Transfer slip and then resubmit to this office. This is a process that must be followed because if you do not reconfirm your information on the attached transfer slip we cannot confirm you are ready for the transfer.We the entire department of Wire Transfer hereby urge you to get into the attached document and proceed as advised.Congratulations
Attached is your transfer slip.
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Anti-fraud resources:
