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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.
- jose.vinal@aim.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "IMF" <noreply@imf.fr>
Reply-To: "IMF" <jose.vinal@aim.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:15:50 +0100
Subject: =?windows-1251?B?UkU6IEZVTkRTIFJFQ09WRVJZ?=
From: Jose Vinal
Financial Counsellor and Director
Monetary and Capital Markets Department
Re: Funds Recovery
The International Fund through the help of Interpol recovered your funds which some criminals diverted. We found out that you have spent so much money trying to get your funds.
Right now, the fund is deposited with a vault company in Holland which your presence is required. The Vault Company in under IMF and the officer in charge will assist you.
The IMF will not persuade you over your payment, so it’s left to you to confirm your arrival in Holland . Seeing is believing. Issues of documents, stop order and these entire crazy schemes that made you spent so much in the hands of criminals are over.
Jose Vinal
Financial Counsellor and Director
Monetary and Capital Markets Department
Email:jose.vinal@aim.com
IMF
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Anti-fraud resources:
