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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "united state of america" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "John Joeckel" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnjoeckel@qq.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2015 11:39:50 -0400
Subject: INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR LOSS TO IMPOSTORS
Hello My Dear Friend,
My name is John Joeckel and i am an FBI agent assigned to handle fraud issues involving foreign beneficiaries who have tried to receive due payment from Africa but lost a huge sum without any positive result to show for it.The United Nations and the newly appointed president of the Federal Repulic of Nigeria has met with other presidents and in the process an agreement was met so as to ensure that foreign beneficiaries receives due fund.
In a meeting with the United State President, the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has vowed to fight corruption and for that reason he has decided to compensate foreignb beneficiaries with fund that where discovered from the sales of excess crude oil.
Inline with the meeting,the president has assigned foreign banks to handle transfer involving beneficiaries who happens to be victims of fraud and this is done in other to avoid re-occurence of fraud victim.Get in touch with me as soon as you are in receipt of this email so that i can direct you on how to make contact with the paying Bank assigned to effect your transfer from the united State Of America.
The paying banks has also specified that the transfer can be carried out through the following options stated below.
* Wire Transfer
*ATM Card to be shipped to your residence
*Bank Draft or Bank Check.
The content of this email is in your overall interest so i advise that you treat as confidencial for your own good.
Best Regard,
John Joeckel.
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Anti-fraud resources:
