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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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)
- "huge deposit" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- limsothea85@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr Lim Sothea" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <limsothea85@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2015 22:15:15 +0700
Subject: MY PROPOSAL
Dear Friend,
I am attorney Lim Sothea the personal adviser to Late Mr. Robert
Donald (a nationality of your country who has same last name with
you) but he lost his life together with all his family members in
auto Crash while they were returning from a vacation from Phnom Penh,
Town here in Cambodia .
I am contacting you to assist me retrieve and receive the huge deposit
funds of ($ 15.5Million) he Left behind in the bank over here in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia before the funds gets confiscated by the bank
officials.
If you accept this offer, urgently get back to me through this my
private email address at ( limsothea85@yahoo.com ) to enable me give you more
details concerning this transaction.
Also I will give you more details about this matter and the payment of
the funds to you.
Thanks,
Mr.Lim Sothea
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Anti-fraud resources:
