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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:
- "the consignment" (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)
- "million united states 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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "AHMED KONE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <kone3555@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2017 18:08:04 -0400
Subject: RE:GOOD DAY DEAR
I am Mr Ahmed kone personal security officer to the former President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote D`Ivoire. I am contacting you to assist me to retrieve the sum of US$250,000,000.00 (Two hundred and Fifty Million United States Dollars) being deposited in a safe house in Cote D`Ivoire which the funds was assign for construction program. .
Since the new government took over the government and due to the political crisis in my country. I will order the safe house to move the consignments to your country for proper investments. As a security officer i have every right to the consignment.
As a matter of fact I am the only person that known about this money.The safe house is ready to move the money to any country of my choice since i am handling all the former president properties.I had a meeting with the director of the safe house to know what will be done so that they can release the money to us.The director told me that we need to get an insurance certificate to enable them release the money to us.This is the only thing holding this transaction,
Ahmed Kone.
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Anti-fraud resources:
