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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:
- "million united state dollars" (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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "(ecowas)" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Joshua A.A Raymond" <fmo.finance@financier.com>
Reply-To: "Mr. Joshua A.A Raymond" <andyrich201@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2015 00:43:23 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Unclaimed sum of one million united state dollars $1000.000.00 USD
Please read this carefully and get back to me,
I am Mr. Joshua A.A Raymond a legal
attorney to the Federation, How are you, i am sending you this message
regarding an unclaimed sum of one million united state dollars
$1000.000.00 USD in your name which was submitted to my office by the
secretary of Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS).
According to the document, this fund is a compensation fund endorsed by
UNCC United nations compensation commission on 6th of February 2015.
The
reason of submitting this document to my office is for the document to
sign as unclaimed fund so that the total amount will be divert to
Federal Treasure Account as unidentified beneficiary. It is my duty to
contact you for final confirmation and if it is true that you are not
responding to the claim of your fund, then i shall sign the document
before it will be return to FTA.
I will not be happy if you lost
this huge amount without any reason because it shall benefit me nothing
to sign this document without confirmation from you because according to
the ECOWAS Secretary, he has been contacting you concerning the claim
of your fund but no response from you.
I will to know if the above address belong to you and why you have not comply for the claim of your fund.
Thank you
Sincerely
Mr. Joshua A.A Raymond
Ph 0022996418005
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Anti-fraud resources:
