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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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)
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "federal republic of benin" (Benin, Cameroon, etc. are no Federal Republics, unlike Nigeria where this type of scam was invented)
- This email message is a "New Partner from Paraguay" scam.
- 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.
- jegasanusi1960@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr.Eddy Nick" <mreddynick@gmail.com>
Reply-To: jegasanusi1960@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2020 07:02:19 -0700
Subject: Attention: ATM Card Beneficiary,
Dear friend,
I am obliged to inform you that our Government Federal republic of
Benin {FRB} has mapped out the total sum of $800.000.00 from the
compensation Office for all your past efforts and attempts to assist
us in transferring those funds despite that it failed us some how Now
contact our payment secretary Office in Cotonou Benin republic to
receive your ATM funds.
Contact person: name is Mr.Jegas Anusi, his email address is
(jegasanusi1960@gmail.com) ask him to send you the total $800.000.00
which was loaded to ATM card or you may receive it by transfer it into
your private or company bank account of your choice if you wish to
receive the $800,000 through bank to bank transfer.We appreciated your
efforts at that time very much.So feel free and get in touched with
the secretary officer Mr.Jegas Anusi, and instruct him where to send
the amount to you.
Please do let our department know immediately you receive it so that
we can keep the records properly.Remember that we had forwarded
instruction to the secretary office on your behalf,so feel free to
contact him now to enable him send your money to you without any
delay.
My regards to you and your
Mr.Eddy Nick
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Anti-fraud resources:
