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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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Aliero A. Adamu" <alieroadamu@yandex.com>
Reply-To: alieroaadamu@outlook.com
Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2016 12:17:05 -0700
Subject: Important info!!!
My compliment to you, I hope all is well with you and your family?
I know that this mail will come as a surprise to you since I had no previous correspondence with you however we are in need of a reliable person who can handle a deal that’s runs into millions in dollars been an over invoiced contract awarded from my ministry. The particular nature of your business is irrelevant to this transaction as it a product of an over invoiced contact awarded in 2014 by my ministry (INEC) to a foreign company for supply of electronic materials and voter cards reading machines needed for the 2015 general electoral registration in Nigeria.
The contract has been executed and payment of the actual contract amount has been paid to the foreign contractor. The balance of the actual contract is what my colleague and I want to transfer out into a reliable foreign account.
Kindly get back to me immediately if you are interested in partnering with us.
Thank you as we await your response.
Yours sincerely,
Aliero A. Adamu.
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Anti-fraud resources:
