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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: BARCLAYSBANK <antoandgongov@gmail.com>
Reply-To: stanley_exkepy@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2016 18:07:21 -0700
Subject: FROM: MR. ERIC JOHNSON THE OFFICER IN-CHARGE UPS DELIVERY COMPANY
EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, 350 AVENUE, NEW YORK NY USA.
We received the instructional letter to credit $10.5million to you through
our online transfer system (O.T.S).Your response is required to enable us
set up an online account in your name without any further delay.You are
required to get back to us with your phone number and FULL NAME for us to
know if what we have in file is correct and to avoid crediting your fund to
a wrong Online Account.
We will give you a form to fill before we proceed with the opening of your
online account.
E-MAIL: ADDRESS.
Please be fast on this matter.
Regards,
Ben S. Bernanke
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
WebRep
Overall rating
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Anti-fraud resources:
