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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:
- "await your urgent response" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mark Sango" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sanmark196@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2017 16:09:49 -0000
Subject: Associate
Hello Friend,
How are you doing today? It was nice to have your contact and I hope this mail doesn't come to you as a surprise or be treated as spam because i consider this info highly classified and pertinent. I am one of the senior staff in one of Banks here in Abidjan Ivory coast. Actually, I am contacting you with regards to this particular fund floating in our Bank belonging to one of our deceased customer. I decided to contact you about this unclaimed deposits. If you are not interested, please ignore this mail and go about your normal business but if you are interested reply me and i will give you the full proposal and It will be shared 50%/50%. I will appreciate your early reply If this proposal is acceptable by you.
I await your urgent response
Regards,
Mr Mark Sango
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Anti-fraud resources:
