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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "diplomatic delivery" ("diplomats" who perform deliveries of cash or other valuables to you only exist in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. John Harvey" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <harvey_john@jormall.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:29:30 +0300
Subject: Payment from Seattle
After the just concluded United Nations summit held in Geneva regarding the third quarter payment of
2010, Your funds are among the twenty others that were released and endorsed for immediate delivery
to their beneficiaries. The official approved mode of payment for this exercise is a "First class
diplomatic delivery as a result of scrutiny and diplomatic fraud checks.
Your payment will be made out from the United Nations diplomatic drop box in New York United
States of America. Failure to respond to this notice within three days of the receipt of this notice
will attract a cancellation of this payment till further notice and we are advised to conclude this
delivery within seven business days as the United Nations will soon commence with their end of third
quarter routine check.
You are advised to re-confirm the below details to enable us cross-check with the ones we have in
our files.This is for us to be sure we are communicating with the right beneficiary to avoid
misdirection of package.
FULL NAMES:
DELIVERY ADDRESS:
DIRECT PHONE NUMBERS:
OCCUPATION:
AGE:
MARITAL STATUS:
SEX:
CLOSEST AIRPORT:
I will provide all the required details as soon as I confirm your understanding. The United Nations
has advised you to stop all correspondence with whoever that claims to be in possession of your
funds.
Thanks for your understanding.
Mr. John Harvey
UN DIPLOMAT.
Tel: 206-420-6662
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Anti-fraud resources:
