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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:
- "economic and financial crimes commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "(efcc)" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "remain blessed" (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- 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.
- jhillss77@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: EFCC PAYMENT OFFICE <rbdewaroffice01@aol.com>
Reply-To: jhillss77@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:28:44 +0200
Subject: URGENT PLS. Your Payment is Ready. From EFCC.
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Attention Please,
This message is coming to you from Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) West Africa based in Nigeria, Please we are contacting you to inform you that we have these gentlemen arrested (we will send you their pictures later) because they run away with your fund for over six months now.
While Nigeria government are looking for them since then, The fact is that they are the people supposed to pay your $1,200.000.00Usd which Nigeria government issued to help you with in past more than six months now.
So we are contacting to let you know that your $1,200.000.00Usd with interest it has accumulated which has approximated your fund to $2,000.000.00Usd. is
ready here in our treasure waiting for you to receive in any were of your choice. So please do get back to us after view of this picture so that we will
know how you choose to receive your payment. Note your phone number and address are needed for now so do get back to us with them asap. Send your personal information such as phone number and residential address to jhillss77@gmail.com and you can as well call: +2348065434240
Remain Blessed.
Jerry Hill
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
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Anti-fraud resources:
