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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: Ryan Smithson <reyn22@olge.hostpilot.com>
Reply-To: <amesah@kimo.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 19:50:59 -0800
Subject: Pls Confirm Receipt
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Attention
I am Ryan Smithson. One of the special agents(FBI) delegated to Ghana to
investigate fraudsters who have been swindling Foreign businessmen in
Ghana/Nigeria. Please be inform that during our investigation, we
discovered that there is a huge sum of 6.1 Million USD that has been
assigned in your name. However, we have to inform you that we’ve been
able to arrest some of these swindlers in respect of the delay over your
funds transfer. We have a limited stay in West Africa. We advise you to
urgently respond to this message ASAP.
All you need to do is to follow our instruction and your over due fund
will be transfer to you as directed by the United Nation UN.
Sincerely,
Ryan Smithson
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Anti-fraud resources:
