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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- fight4justice@pobox.sk (Pobox; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "EDWARD CLARK" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <edclark69@outlook.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2015 13:57:43 -0500
Subject: TOP OF THE DAY !!!
Dear Friend,
How are you? my name is Edward Clark i am the Director Credit Control & debt servcices here at the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND(IMF) office here in London please confirm to me if you are the one we seek to reach,we have been investigating your unclaimed fund which was held back and payment put on hold by our organisation hoping it was DRUG RELATED OR ANTI-TERRORISM FUND but after thorough investigation you/your company have been absolved of such illegal money laundry activities and as such i have been instructed to contact you of the resolve of the think tank committee to finally release your fund.
We are indeed very sorry for the delay this may have occasioned on you.Thusyou are adviced to furnish us with the underlisted information i.e:
1.YOUR COMPLETE NAME AND ADDRESS
2.TELEPHONE NUMBER(S)
3.NATIONALITY
4.BANK INFORMATION
5.YOUR IDENTITY
Upon receipt of the above information we shall let you have further instructions on how to receive your funds.
Once again we say thank you for your time and patience i do hope you understand why we had to take all this measures is just to safe guard all of us and make the world a better place to live in and as much as possible abate the incidence of acts of terrorism and money laundry the world over.
please forward your response to: fight4justice@pobox.sk
Yours Truly,
Edward Clark
Director, Credit Control & debt services
LOndon,Uk
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Anti-fraud resources:
