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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
Fraud email example:
From: "Gary Fisher" <canon@rchagen.com>
Reply-To: gfisher@eu-cs.com
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2018 19:12:38 -0500
Subject: Your inheritance
I am Gary Fisher attorney to your late Uncle Mr.Donald, who died in a car crash in London with his family on November 10th 2013.He left behind a deposit of ($6.5 million USD) for you as his next of kin and you have the same last name with my late client who was a citizen of the United State, You are related to him, Your consent is needed by me to present you as the next of kin to the Bank to inherit his fortune. I have all documents that would give you all the legal right to claim this money which belong to your late uncle, the beneficiary information in his file suggest you are the next of kin.
Best Regards
Gary Fisher Esq
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Anti-fraud resources:
