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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: Embassy <odorico.coletta@alice.it>
Reply-To: office.usembassy@yandex.com
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 12:32:22 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Greeting from U.S Embassy
I'm James F. Entwistle From u.s embassy Nigeria,
I was newly appointed as ambassador to Nigeria and i wanted to
inform you that i saw your name in one file here with some payment
details which you made to receive your fund but i don't know what
happened that Mr Terence P. McCulley who left this office did not allowed
you to received your fund, I decided to write you if you may still be
interested to get your fund through the power of this office and i
know that something went wrong or maybe they demanded so much from you
which you are unable to pay but i will try my best as a new appointed
ambassador to Nigeria and even if you are from Asia or Europe
just be ready to receive your fund.
I was so shocked when i saw your name here and you are very lucky
that he did not cleans away your name which means that i can still locate you
through your email address and i'm so sorry for whatever has happened and how
much you spent in the past but be rest assured that i will never disappoint
you
like Mr Terence P. McCulley and all i needed from you now is to re-confirm
your
contact address where you will like to
receive your fund and all it will cost you is $155 to renew your
Certificate of ownership and you are paying the$155 to the attorney who
will do the work so that i can put my signature to enable you receive
your $5.9m after some years now and please fill this before you write
back to this office.
I will wait to hear from you as soon as you receive this email first
thing tomorrow morning and make sure that you tell me how you will
like to receive your fund,
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Anti-fraud resources:
