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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:
- ",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: "Office Contact" <Office@suncor.com>
Reply-To: officialmail594@gmail.com
Date: 18 Nov 2017 17:07:36 -0800
Subject: Re: URGENT PLEASE dc882308@opayq.com
Good day
I got your email address: dc882308@opayq.com from a business
directory. I have a deal for you. This deal will benefit us
greatly. My name is John Limak, I am into construction of airport
and we are the Limak Brothers. We just completed a project at
Kuwait which you can see on the news below. We made so much money
from the deal which i got a deal with the Kuwait government
officer in position of contract payment to over inflated the
contract funds and i made benefit of $50,000,000.00 Million.
I want to use my share of the money to invest into any profitable
investment.
Can you work with me. This deal most be kept secret please
because I will not like my company to know i made money from the
deal which the Kuwait officer told me to keep secret also so that
he will not lose his job.
I have submitted resignation letter to my company that i don't
want to work any more. Please reply me and inform me if you are
interested.
God bless you.
Regard,
John Limak
Tel: +1 404596652
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Anti-fraud resources:
