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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:
- "money laundering" ("anti-terrorist", "anti-money laundering" or "drug-free" certificates are a common way for criminals in fake lottery scams and other Advance Fee scams to get you to send money to them. There are no such certificates in the real banking world. )
- "huge amount of money" (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)
- "economic and financial crimes commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "crimes.office@mail.bg" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "INVESTIGATION BUREAU" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <crimes.office@mail.bg>
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2016 23:30:40 +0530
Subject: INVESTIGATION BUREAU DEPARTMENT
CRIMES OFFICE (Executive Chairman)
ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION
INVESTIGATION BUREAU
Motto: No Body is Above the LAW
( BE CAREFUL OF THE HOODLUMS / SCAMMERS)
ATTENTION:
BE CAREFUL OF THE HOODLUMS
Firstly we introduce this commission, Economic & Financial Crimes
Commission (CRIMES) we fight cyber crime, Internet fraud, scam and money
laundering all over the globe and Our commission has been in existences
since 2004 and our duty is to stop Internet fraud. We have over 7,500 of
them in our jails around Africa and UK and we are still looking for these
Internet fraudsters and we are aware that a lot of foreigners have been
deceived a huge amount of money has also been lost to this fraudsters after
promising you percentages in their letters for you to help them move funds
and they will end up demanding for money from you and in return you will
get nothing.
The Leaders of the Crime fighters has come together to inform the world
what is going on now and we have recovered over $4 Billion Dollars (Four
Billion Dollars only) from the people we have
apprehended. The reason we are writing you this letter is because your name
was given to us by one of the fraudsters in our detention room after
serious investigation and our aim is to refund all lost fund to its
legitimate owner.
This organization has approved a total of (us$120.2Million) only as the
compensation of the lost incurred as this was a ceiling rate as some
suffered more while others suffered less the idea is to restore you back
to the position that you would have been if not that you are defrauded. In
addition to the aforementioned, a compensation amount was also approved in
your favor is and that will only be paid to you in the next few days.
You are advised to reconfirm the below listed information's to enable us
serve you better.
Full Name:
Country:
State:
Residential Address:
Sex:
Age:
Direct Number:
Occupation& Fax Numbers:
Private Email Address:
Please Kindly report any suspected email of scam received by you and stop
any further communication with anybody or office suspected to be scam
artist.
Mr. Frank Adje
CRIMES Executive Chairman,
Chief CRIMES OFFICE)
Email : crimes.office@mail.bg
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Anti-fraud resources:
