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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "international court of justice" (not involved with lotteries)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "jpage-consultant@live.com" (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: "Fortune Owen" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jpage-consultant@live.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2016 01:48:11 -0700
Subject: Approved Compensation Payment
UNITED NATIONS/WORLD BANK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT ASSISTED PROGRAM
760 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017, USA
Our Ref: WB/NF/UN/XX2016
Attention: Dear Beneficiary
We write to inform you that we have been authorized by the International Court of Justice in conjunction with the IMF to investigate the unnecessary delay of an approved (US$3.5M) World Bank/United Nations Economic Empowerment Assisted Trust Funding awarded in your favour through your email account. During the course of our investigation, we discovered with dismay that this payment has been unnecessarily delayed by some corrupt officials who are trying to divert the fund into their private accounts.
You are hereby advised to contact and confirm your identity to the World Bank payment representative Mr. John Page, Email: jpage-consultant@live.com to facilitate this payment.
Congratulations!
Mr. Fortune Owen
Payment Investigation Officer
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Anti-fraud resources:
