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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 friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "i will like you to " (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "confidential business" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: Mr.Yinka Jimo <lobifile01@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <mryinkajimobk@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 17:33:30 +0000
Subject: IMPORTANT NOTICE
Dear Friend
I am Mr.Jimo Yinka a Banker from one of the international Bank here in my country Nigeria. Although the world is spherical and hard place to met people because you don't know who to trust or believe, but I have developed my trust to you to confide this confidential business proposal.
3 Years ago, most of the Nigerian Politicians used our bank to launder fund to overseas through the help of their Political advisers, I find out what was going on because these days some of the fund were stock for politicians, I was able to divert ($25.3M) to an escrow account.
So i will like you to act as the depositor of the fund because the bank does not know the owner of the fund and also the claim is legal as i have made all the good arrangement to transfer the fund to foreign account, 25% for you while 5% will be for expenses. My private e-Email is ( jimokbk@yandex.com )
Thanks
Mr.Jimo Yinka
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Anti-fraud resources:
