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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: "Piyush Gupta" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <victorwang67@imail.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2018 17:02:05 +0800
Subject: YOUR CONTRIBUTION
My name is Piyush Gupta, the Chief Executive Officer, Development Bank of Singapore (DBS). With my office position, I am privilege to bring this information across to you if would be interested. Following clamour from the United Nation for repatriation of stolen funds starched in European Banks, Asia and United States by some African Leaders we successfully confirmed USD450M in our bank. But we have a plan to declare USD400M then divert USD50M to your account if willing to cooperate with us. And we are prepared to offer you 20% for your support and contribution.
Further instructions, I anticipate your quick response.
Piyush Gupta.
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Anti-fraud resources:
