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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:
- "contract award committee" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Akim Dada <76akiyama@gmail.com>
Reply-To: akim_dada90@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2015 13:41:28 +0000
Subject: Urgent Reply
Greetings.
Compliments of the day to you! I hope you’re doing well and that this
letter meets you and your family in good health.
My name is Mr.Akim Dada and I am the chief protocol officer and project
director to contract award committee of the West African Health Support
Organization (WAHSO). My colleagues and I have a total of USD40 million
dollar to move out of the country immediately. The money came from over
inflated contract awarded by my committee to expartriate companies during
the outbreak of cerebral meningitis in Sub-Saharan African countries in
2009. The people involved are top civil servants. We seriously wanted a
trustworthy partner to assit us in receiving this money abroad for our
collective benefits. If you are interested please get back to me for more
information regarding this transaction.
Best Regard
Mr.Akim Dada
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Anti-fraud resources:
