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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:
- "hundred thousand united state 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)
- "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: Mark Thabo Khumalo <markthabo002@gmail.com>
Reply-To: markthabo001@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2017 01:59:47 -0700
Subject: Yes you can
Good day,
I write in confidence to personally seek your co-operation in a business
venture that constitute of a large sum of cash in the USD (United State
Dollar) currency. My name is Mr. Mark Thabo Khumalo, I am a
manager/consultant of bank in the South Africa. If you are interested, I
want to present you to my head office for the claim of USD19.3m (Nineteen
Million Three Hundred Thousand United State Dollars) out of my country for
our mutual benefits.
The process has been planed and arranged to be legitimate and will attract
no problem whatsoever either now or in future if we diligently follow the
process carefully. I am proposing %30 of the total sum to you.
Get back to me with the following if you are interested and I will detail
you more on the proposed deal.
1. Your full names: ………………………………..
2. Your Nationality: ……………………………….
3. Your Date of birth: …………………………….
4. Your occupation: ……………………………….
5. Your address: …………………………………….
6. Your Tele/Cell phone number:…………..
I will be anticipating your kind response on this my proposal
Yours Sincerely
Mark Thabo Khumalo
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Anti-fraud resources:
