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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Notemba Mdyesha <miss_dennisjon@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: Notemba Mdyesha <notembamdyesha@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2014 07:36:21 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Dear Friend,
Dear Friend,
I beg your pardon. I would appreciate opportunity to discuss with you a
matter of inheritance deposit which I want to invest in your country since
I'm having my uncle's almost every day on my neck as a potential threat to
my live because I refuse to relinquish information of my late father's
deposit to them "seeing that my parents are dead. I beg you to help me,
unfortunately my condition did not give me the opportunity to access your
reliability but I believe you will not betray the confident I reposed on
you to help me transfer the inheritance deposit of $7m to your account for
investment in your country on my behalf.
Truly, I don't know you but I want to rely on your assistance to secure the
inheritance for a good investment.
Notemba Mdyesha
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Anti-fraud resources:
