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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: "Susanne Klatten" <mails5@param.us.com>
Reply-To: Sus-Klatten@proton.me
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2023 03:49:11 -0400
Subject:
Hi dear,
My name is Susanne Klatten, I am known for Holdings in Altana and BMW;
richest woman in Germany. I plan to give away the majority of my wealth
during my lifetime. I had one idea that never changed in my mind; that I
should use my wealth to help people and I have decided to secretly give
USD $7.5 Million to randomly selected individuals worldwide. On receipt of
this email, you should count yourself as the lucky individual.
Your email address was chosen online while searching at random. Kindly get
back to me at your earliest convenience, so I know your email address is
valid. click reply to contact me directly for comprehensive information.
Regards
Susanne
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Anti-fraud resources:
