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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 phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- ",500,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Frank Davis <real5frankdavis2015@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: real2frankdavis2015@hotmail.com
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2015 09:45:40 -0700
Subject: EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: RESPOND NOW!!
 My dear,
We are humbly using this medium to inform you that your payment of
Euros16,500,000.00 (Sixteen Million, Five Hundred Thousand Euros Only) we
recovered from a Bank here in South Africa as unclaimed
Inheritance/Winning Grant fund belonging to you has been approved and ready
to be released to you.
You are hereby strongly advised immediately to contact the Manager of this
Bank through his open email address: and send him your payment release
code#: BOE 1700 which empower him to process and release the Euros16.5
Million Euros to you ASAP.
We have to let you know that your fund is presently with a Bank here in
South Africa. You are therefore required to reconfirm to us immediately in your
return message your full details and banking informationâs to enable us
process and wire your fund into your Bank
account.
Thanks for adhering to this instructions.
Yours Sincerely,
Frank Davis
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Anti-fraud resources: