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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: "Dr Thomas Kohler" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <Dr.thomas@1email.eu>
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2016 08:17:41 +0800
Subject: Attn Sir/Madam
Dear Sir,
This is to inform you that your funds has been intercepted by the European Currency Commission and Financial Action Task Force as the EU and US Government wants to stop all illegal funds which is a way to curb the terrorist and drug war. We will need to hear from you as the beneficiary to ascertain your ownership of the fund and to proceed in transferring the funds into your account within 72 hours. Do provide your details including an identification for processing and release of funds.
Regards,
Thomas Kohler
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Anti-fraud resources:
