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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:
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: kate fora <fodeyao@gmail.com>
Reply-To: kate fora <katefora22@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2015 04:46:20 +0900 (JST)
Subject: urgent
Dear one,
Good day and how are you doing together with your family I
decided to let you know what am going through. My name is miss Kate
flora, from divo cote d'Ivoire. My father was working as a director at
the ministry of mining sodemi Cote d’ivoire, my father was assassinate
on his way back home after a business trip, since then I had been with
my mother who also suffered from breast cancer before she die, since
then I have been in the refugee camp for security reason but have never
disclose about this gold and money that was left
for me by my late father with my name in one of the insurance security
company here in Abidjan for safe keeping,
now I want to look for a reliable and honest person that can take the
50kgs of gold bar and dust including $2millions to help invest in
anything good that can yield
profits.
So I am calling for your urgent assistance so that I can give all the proof together with the security company information.
Please
I want you to act as my partner to receive the fund and the gold in
your country so that you will look for a buyer of the gold and use the
money together to start a business on my behalf and also to have a
quality education as you can see I have to stop schooling all because am
left alone living now in a refugee camp.Get back to me so that I can
give you more details about my situation.
Thank you and God bless you and your family
Miss Kate Flora
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Anti-fraud resources:
