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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:
- "huge amount of money" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Louis Gibson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <louisgibson@qq.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 15:24:05 -0300
Subject: Lucrative Business Deal.
Hello,
I contact you this day because I need your full cooperation/trust. My name is Mr. Louis Gibson, former special adviser to Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya.
I have in my possession a huge amount of money for immediate investment with any interested associate. Therefore I am contacting any honest person for an urgent business deal that will profit both of us as I have ran out from the country to where I'll hide for my dear life due to the recent political crisis in Libya that has taken the lifes of so many citizens of the country, I shall feed you more information or willing to meet with you face to face on the business deal once I receive your full information..
I want you to assure me that you will keep this information top secret because I do not want to have any contact with any of the remaining members of the Gaddafi family.
Your information will be needed for further proceedings on this deal.
1. Full Name
2. Private Mobile Number
3. Residential Address
4. Your Age
5. Current Occupation
6. Marital status.
I assure and promise to give you 30% of this fund, however feel free to negotiate what you wish to have as your percentage in this deal. Looking forward to your kind response.
Regards.
Mr. Louis Gibson.
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