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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:
- "required fee " (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "western union" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "money gram" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "mtcn" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
Fraud email example:
From: "IKE ONOCHIE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <fig.western.union.agency@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 11:38:54 -0500
Subject: Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Greeting Beneficiary,
Your email has been received with your information's in regarding of your compensation fund deposited in this office by UN (UNITED NATION) Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon/ IMF Chief Benin to transfer to you once you contact us with your full details as listed bellow, and all we need from you is to pay attention and follow the instructions given to you, to enable us commence your daily payment to you immediately.
We have verified the information provided by UN Secretary General/ and IMF Chief Benin to our Western Union Remittance Office and we would like you to re-confirm below information once again to avoid wrong remittances of your daily payment as programmed by this office.
Receiver’s Name:....
Receiver’s Country:....
Receiver’s Address:....
Copy of Passport OR ID Card:....
Telephone#:....
Finally you are going to create a sequential payment file that will back up your daily payment from this office to avoid any interruption with western union over there, when receiving your daily payment from this office. And to create this sequential file it will cost you the sum of $350.00 dollars and once this is done you will start receiving your money immediately as programmed starting from today.
Send the required fee $350.00 dollars via Western Union OR Money Gram with below information-
Receiver’s Name:
Receiver’s Country:
Text Question:
Text Answer:
Amount: USD$350.00
As soon as you are done with the payment do email us the payment detail’s such as MTCN #:……/ Sender’s Name:………/Sender’s Phone #:………../ Address:…….
We await your response as soon as possible.
Yours in service
Rev. Peter Chimma
Director Western Union Down Town
Benin Republic.
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Anti-fraud resources:
