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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "kent gilbert" <jhome235@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2016 22:17:33 -0400
Subject: Kent Gilbert From South Africa
Am Kent Gilbert from south Africa i work in bank as an auditor,I need you
to stand as a beneficiary to the sum of $4.5millions united state dollars
lying down unclaimed in our bank,i will explain to you in details step to
be taken to claim the funds what really happened is that during the course
of our auditing last week, I discovered a floating fund in an account
opened in the bank in the year 2001 and since 2002 nobody has operated on
this account again after going through some old files in the records I
discovered that the owner of the account died without a [Heir/WILL] hence
the money is floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently it
will be forfeited for nothing. So get back to me for more details on how
you will get the funds.
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Anti-fraud resources:
