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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "liberia" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- 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.
- dale.christopher54@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dale Christopher" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dale-chris@live.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 00:42:13 +0100
Subject: Dear Friend
Dear Friend,
I am the secretary to the director of foreign debt management of the New World Bank Group Office in Ghana; your unpaid payment file has been laying here for many months now and nobody has ever told you the truth about the part-payment US$6.5M; and the reason why you have not received your funds from the appointed Bank here in Ghana.
When I was going through your payment file, I find out that you have not received a cent from them. All the top officials both men and women keep on exploiting you of your hard earned money. I don’t want to go far yet.
My question is this, are you still interested in receiving at least part of your overdue payment? Just let me know and further details will be communicated to you accordingly, strictly contact me only via my email (dale.christopher54@yahoo.com) I am a Liberian working in Ghana as appointed agent for Regional integration and collaboration to overcome Africa's most pressing obstacles to development.
Dale Christopher
Secretary to the Director,
Foreign Debt Management Office.
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Anti-fraud resources:
