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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:
- "million dollars" (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)
- "god fearing " (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +22566027705 (Cote d'Ivoire, probably a prepaid mobile phone)
Fraud email example:
From: Church Of God Mission Coted'Ivoire <cgmci@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <cgmci@yahoo.fr>
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2014 07:39:47 +0000
Subject: From . Rev. Pastor . Austin Chinedu Ezennia.
>From . Rev. Pastor . Austin Chinedu Ezennia.Tel : +225 6602 7705Church Of God Mission Coted'Ivoire.
Dear,
May the peace of the Lord be upon you.
I
am a residence pastor of this above church and one of my members told
him that his late father deposited the sum of $5.4 million dollars with a
bank here and he have asked me to look for a God fearing person who can
assist him in transferring this money in his country abroad and invest
it in a lucrative business and also assist him to travel to his country
to continue his education.
Please
Sir, if you can be able to assist this boy in investing in good
business in your country, kindly reply me to give you all the necessary
documents to contact the bank and for them to transfer the funds to youThanks Your's in his vineyard.Rev. Pastor . A. C. Ezennia.
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Anti-fraud resources:
