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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million dollars" (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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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.
- beverlyhanson12@gmail.com (Gmail/GoogleMail; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: Beverly Hanson <deloozec@tcd.ie>
Reply-To: Beverly Hanson <beverlyhanson112@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 17:18:26 -0800
Subject: Re: Can we do business together Friend?
Dear Friend.
Can we do business together?
My name is Beverly Hanson; I’m a US Army Officer currently on deployment in Iraq. I need your assistant only if you can be trusted in investing $15,000,000.00USD (Fifteen Million Dollars). Please if you don't believe in this kindly delete this message, but if you are interested and has any question towards this, kindly email me back so we can be able to discuss every step towards achieving success on this and also discuss our sharing ratio at the end of this business.
Regards.
Beverly Hanson.
E-Mail: beverlyhanson12@gmail.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
