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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: Miss Charlotte Boigny <umetusarh@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: Miss Charlotte Boigny <charlotteboigny@yahoo.fr>
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 02:43:15 +0900 (JST)
Subject: GREETINGS
With warm heart I offer my friendship and greetings to you.
The source through which I got your contact gave me the confidence to
contact your kind assistance to help me to transfer and secure the sum of
Nine Hundred and Eighty Five Thousand Dollars (US$ 985.000) I inherited from
my late father.
My late father was a wealthy Agricultural Business man of Cocoa & Gold
before his tragic death, he handed me the deposit documents because my
mother died many years ago.
I want to invest this money in your peaceful country and with your
experience, I think you are in good position to assist me archieve my
aim, that is securing of this fund and investing it under your guardian.
I am 21 years undergraduate and don't know what to do as I have suffered
lots of set backs as a result of the political crisis of my country and
the death of my father actually brought sorrow to my life.
Please I do hope to hear from you on reciept of this mail so I can give
you more details and present you to the bank as my partner.
Best regards,
Miss Charlotte Boigny.
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Anti-fraud resources:
