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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:
- "hundred thousand united states dollars" (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: Konte Bernard <ousmanekonte366@gmail.com>
Reply-To: kontebernard@yandex.com
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2021 09:00:55 +0100
Subject: Business Partnership
My name is Mr. Bernard Konte and I write to seek your service to solicit
for your assistance and guidelines in making a business investment and
transfer of
$13,600,000.00 (Thirteen Million Six Hundred Thousand United States
Dollars) to your country and with you as a partnership.
Please I must plead for your confidence in this transaction. I am a high
placed official working with (construction department) in my country. Me
and my colleague are currently in need of a client foreign partner whose
identity we can use to transfer this sum of money.
But at this moment, I will issue more details about this profitable
business investment until I get your response which I and my colleague will
highly appreciate. This fund accrued legitimately to us as commission from
foreign contracts, through our private connections. The transfer will be
affected within a period not longer than two weeks as soon as we reach an
agreement and you furnish me with a suitable response indicating your
interest as soon as possible.
Regards,
Bernard Konte.
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Anti-fraud resources:
