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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.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
Fraud email example:
From: "Ms Annor Kissi" <ucostan@tin.it>
Reply-To: <mrsannork@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 19:45:29 -0800
Subject: Attention Please
Dear: Account ID owner,
Please it our pleasure to contact you personally to confirm from you if actually YOU know one Mr. Robert Caldwell who claimed to be your formal business associate/partner here in Ghana (Gold-coast) .
The said Mr. Robert Caldwell is claiming to us that you are dead and he will like to change all the Information's that you gave to us as our rightful beneficiary.This development is coming now that the Ministry want to offset all outstanding payments to all our legal foreign beneficiaries around the world in which your payment file was affected.
therefore, You are to contact us as soon as you receive this message so as to know the true position of things with you so that we won't make any mistake in remitting your out-standing payment $7.3Million to a wrong person/account.
Your swift / Urgent response will help this ministry a lot to avoid making payment on wrong person /persons account. Please indicate US with your full Address (INFORMATION) and direct phone number for an easy communication to this effect Immediately.
Best Regards.
Mrs. Annor Kissi
( Minister Of Finance Ghana(FMF)
Mr. Patrick Nomo (Permanent Secretary (FMF).
TEL:+233-5438-65441 (24 hrs)
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Anti-fraud resources:
