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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: Joseph Zhu<gkailai78@gmail.com>
Reply-To: j.zhu@inbox.ru
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2016 21:46:20 +0100
Subject: Dear Friend..
Hello,
I am writing to you on behalf of the wife of my former boss. My name is Mr. Joseph Zhu and I have been presented a subtle offer which will need the help of a partner like you to complete successfully. But the deal is that you must be willing to assist the wife of my former boss Mr. Zhou Yongkang. She is a woman who is interested in developing new relationships outside Asia and she has appealed to me as a close family friend to help her find a trusted foreign partner under whose identity the sum of $33 million can be relocated out of Hong Kong. I have accepted the challenge to help her, hence my open public letter to you. Please follow the web link below for the latest profile of my former boss Mr. Zhou Yongkang.
http://www.scmp.com/topics/zhou-yongkang
If you are interested, please get back to me for further details, terms and conditions.
Sincerely,
Mr. Joseph Zhu
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Anti-fraud resources:
