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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: Greg Gregory <subscription@fatfmail.info>
Reply-To: Greg Gregory <greg.gregory@politician.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2016 03:22:30 +0200
Subject: read and respond ASAP
Dear
My Name is Greg Gregory. I was a former South African politician. I was in charge of road infrastructure program in 2010 World Cup. I managed to accumulate the sum of Thirty eight million, seven hundred thousand dollars during my period in the office. The funds are kept at a very good high storage security company.
As a government official I am not allowed to possess or invest such a high amount of money. I am soliciting for your assistance to transfer the fund out of South Africa to your individual or company's account for our mutual benefits.
On your acceptance, I will give you more details on what to do.
Thanks,
Greg Gregory
Email; greg.gregory@politician.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
