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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "offshore account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. James Dim Bello" <mr.dimbello@gmail.com>
Reply-To: jamesdimbello77@outlook.com
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2017 16:36:14 +0000
Subject: Hi
Dear Friend,
I am humbly request of you to be our foreign partner in your country to us
help secure funds.We want to transfer this funds to you, so that you will
keep it for us in an offshore account.and you will help us invest in your
country.
This will be executed under a legitimate arrangement from will not breach
any law and you will be compensated adequately according to agreed
commissions. If you are interested and prepared to work with us, please
reply to me so that we can discuss all the details involved in the
execution of this transaction. Hopefully, we can do some good business
together.
I hope you find this transfer and partnership useful and look forward to
receiving your feedback.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. James Dim Bello
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Anti-fraud resources:
