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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Asheem Smith" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ashemsmiths@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2017 05:34:20 -0800
Subject: Urgent Proposal
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am using my personal email to discuss with you and let me know if you are interested. It does not have to affect your professional business and it does not need your traveling anywhere hence it can be done on telephone.
Actually, our department deals on servicing of oil pipe and Gas. There is one chemical call crystal diamond mixture which is used for the servicing and maintenance of Oil pipe. Our company normally purchase it from one company in China but unfortunately the company we used to purchase the products has closed since six months now and our company has run short of the Crystal Diamond Mixture.
I was privileged to locate a company in Turkey that has the products (Crystal Diamond Mixture) and they sell the product at the price/rate of 100 Euros per gram while our company used to buy it from China at the rate of 250 Euros per gram. The deal now is that our purchasing manager wants me to give him the contact of the company so that he can purchase direct from the company. If I give him the contact of the company he will purchase direct from the company at the rate of 100 Euros while I have told him 250 Euros as of the price we used to buy from China.
Please I need your cooperation and understand so that you will stand as the seller of the products and you will sell the product at the rate of 250 Euros per gram while you buy from the company at the rate of 100 Euros. Both of us will have to share the profit of 150 Euros of each gram 50-50. This is a long time
transaction which may last for years and I know each purchase should be up to 50Kg. Kindly think about the proposal and if you are interested please get back to me immediately because it is urgent.
This proposal shall be strictly between me and you.
Thanks for your audience.
Asheem
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Anti-fraud resources:
