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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Steve Thompson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <drsteve2007@wwjd.ru>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:47:28 -0800
Subject: IMMEDIATE INHERITANCE PAYMENT REF: MAV/BDBR/MIN/009
Attn: Beneficiary
IMMEDIATE INHERITANCE PAYMENT REF: MAV/BDBR/MIN/009
After a meeting held by the board of directors of the above mentioned bank and the Minister of finance including
the Audit/Accounts Unit of United Nations here in London, England to see to the release of long term debt owed
to many foreigners around the globe who have been denied of their payments,This bank (Barclays Bank Plc) has
been authorized to handle the urgent release of all funds owed by any of the financial institution or country that is
a member of the United Nations.
PLEASE READ THE MESSAGE ATTACHED FOR FULL DETAILS
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Anti-fraud resources:
