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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 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Smith Eric" <zhaotai@zhaotai.com.cn>
Reply-To: smitheric4040@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:03:33 +0300
Subject: RE:Confidential..
Dear Sir/Ma
=
My name is Smith Eric ,a British citizen and an attorney. We are private so=
licitors to Mr. Dmitry Zakharchenko, the head of the Anti-Corruption Board =
in Russia. You can read the link below to have full knowledge of the man.
https://www.rt.com/news/359330-russia-corruption-bank-switzerland/
=
He had entrusted in our care some documents of funds which he deposited wit=
h a private vault here in Europe and in a Bank, before the episode as expre=
ssed in the link. His wife has given us instructions to look for an investo=
r that could handle any of this deposit on behalf of the family. I will rev=
eal details of this testament as soon as we agree to deal on this transacti=
on.
If you agree to this request and you have the capacity to handle this fund=
s, you will be responsible for receiving the funds with the deposit documen=
t which I will present to you and also welcome and negotiate a reasonable %=
to you too.
The total amount in deposit is much and I will give details as soon as I h=
ear from you. =
Please keep confidential.and if you do not wish to assit me please ignore =
this message and dont reveal it to anyone =
=
=
Sincerely,
Smith Eric
=
=
=20
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Anti-fraud resources:
