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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.
- 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.
- revanthony1960@sify.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "MRS. HELEN MICHAEL" <web.inf@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: revanthony1960@sify.com
Date: Mon, 10 May 2010 17:13:48 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: STOP ORDER ON YOUR PAYMENT.
Attention: beneficiary
We have order an instruction from African union in conjunction with European union and the IMF to stop all outgoing funds payments from Africa and European Nations. This is in line with the current monetary policy issued by the above nations to monitor all outgoing funds from the regions this year 2010.
To checkmate this, the above organization have jointly agreed that all wire transfers from African region shall be through the African union reserve accounts globally as well as all payments going out of the European nations. This order falls on your impending wire transfer of funds transfer.
And other short listed beneficiaries within this payment quarter 2010. you should therefore cease further dealings with the duos of Drug Law customs or whosoever that is contacting you in this regard about your funds. This is for your own good and safety of your funds is now ready for payment to you.
For security reasons Contact us for directives on how to receive your funds into your international account within this space of time. Failure to comply within seven banking working days will amount to total seizure of funds from the above unions.
Waiting for your immediate compliance to this official directive as you contact our payment officer now for more proves of ownership.
Contact Person Rev.Dr.Anthony Johnson
Email Address: revanthony1960@sify.com
Yours in service,
Mrs.Helen Michael.
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Anti-fraud resources:
