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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:
- "transfer into your account" (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)
- "lome togo" (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: Michael John <joybarinan@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mj277076@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2017 15:39:57 +0000
Subject: I NEED A POSITIVE ANSWER
I am Mr. Micheal John from Lome Togo, I am writing for the following
opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to both of
us. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of 5.5 Million
Euros (Five Million Five Hundred thousand Euros) in an account that
belong to one of our foreign Customers in your country who
unfortunately lost His life on a TAM airlines commercial jet crashed
in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, July 17, 2007 and burst, into flames after
skidding off a run away and barreling across a busy Highway.
Please i hope to hear from you even if you’re not interested because i
will pay all the charges to make this fund be transfer into your
account.
Best regards.
Mr. Micheal John
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Anti-fraud resources:
