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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: Patrick Treadwell <mrdavisanderson@gmail.com>
Reply-To: patricktread0@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 18:25:55 +0100
Subject: Re: Hello
--
Good Day
my name is Mr Patrick Treadwell i am the regional manager of bank Ghana ltd
Our dead bank customer with no next of Kin & no will had $6.5 millions
dollars in my branch. I want you to claim this
money with your name you as the next of kin. Reply with your name, address
and telephone. I will make
legal coverage papers and present to my bank head office and the fund will
be paid to you. We share
60-40.
Looking forward to your response.Reply
Sincerely,
Mr Patrick Treadwell
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Anti-fraud resources:
