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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:
- "you are advise to" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- 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.
- johnmadu13@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnmadu13@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 8 May 2013 09:49:03 -0700
Subject: ARE YOU DEAD OR ALIVE???
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
FOREIGN TRANSFER DEPARTMENT
PRIVATE EMAIL: johnmadu13@yahoo.com
Attention:
This email is to inform you that finally, your compensation fund to the tune of $5 Million usd have been finally approved by the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND.
However, we received a message from one Patrick Fish stating that you died in a car accident some days ago and he his your next of kin, in his message, he also sent us a bank account details stating that we should transfer your fund into the account which he has provided, now we need you to get back to us as soon as possible so that we can confirm if all what Patrick Fish has is true and correct.
You are hereby advise to contact this office with the following details if truly you are alive
NAME
FULL CONTACT ADDRESS
COUNTRY
TELEPHONE NUMBER
OCCUPATION
You are advise to treat this email with utmost urgency so that once we hear from you, we can instruct the bank to transfer your fund to you and have Patrick Fish arrested as soon as possible.
Yours In Service
John Madu
Head of Operations
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Anti-fraud resources:
