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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: "Mr Soro Tioho" <info@venkonair.com>
Reply-To: tioho333@outlook.com
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 18:17:05 +0300
Subject: Proposal
Greetings,
Please allow me to intimate you with a business transaction that would
benefit both of us. I am the Production Manager of the Société Ivoirienne
de Raffinage of Ivory Coast in West Africa. I will want you to assist me
in the claim and transfer of Twelve Million Euros to your account.
This amount was realized from over-invoiced contract amount awarded by us
in 2010 to expatriate companies before the political crises. The
contract's amount was deliberately overestimated to read more than the
actual cost of the project thus leaving a surplus of Twelve Million Euro.
However, as a staff of SIR, I cannot claim this money without a foreign
partner who will act as the contract beneficiary and as such, entitled to
receive the funds as payment. This is why I am contacting you to allow
this money to be transferred into your account and to be my custodian for
the money.
If you are willing to assist me in this transaction please get back to me
so I can give you further details about this transaction and how we will
proceed. I am willing to give you 30% of the total amount after the
transfer, the rest will be held and released to me when I get to your
country. I look forward to hear from you.
Thanks.
Mr Soro Tiotioho.
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Anti-fraud resources:
