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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:
- "million us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "top secret" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Ayesha Muammar Gaddafi" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <muammargaddafi.ayesha@mail.ru>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2017 03:58:32 +0700
Subject: Hello Dear
It is my pleasure to meet with you dear. Let me introduce myself I am Ayesha Gaddafi and I'm the daughter of
the former president of Libya late Muammar Gaddafi who was killed in the civil war that took place in the
year 2011 that ended up his life on the 20th October 2011. Before the death of my father he made a
deposit of 11,500 million US dollars with STANDARD CHARTERED BANK .
No one knows about the money except we the children and now my brother is in the prison for trial of
war crime so i am the only one left, i got an mail from the bank that i have to come for the funds but now
i can't go because after the death of my father the UN and Libya Government has been tracking all my
father's wealth and money everywhere around the globe and this was the last deposit my father made
before he died, so i am looking for a trust worthy person to stand as my foreign beneficiary to help me
claim the funds and i am ready to reward whoever he or she may be and i will also let the security company
know that i am appointing the person as my beneficiary to help me receive the funds from the bank so
i can come out of my present ordeal and go to somewhere i will start a new life.
I will like to hear from you soon and let me know if you will be able to help me with this and i promise
that this transaction will be smooth and free, please keep this as a top secret between both of us.
I will furnish you with more info as soon as I hear from you indicating your interest to partner with me.
At present I don't receive or make calls for security reasons as it is being monitored.
All communication is will be done via email.
Best Regards.
Dr. Ayesha Muammar Gaddafi.
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Anti-fraud resources:
