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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:
- "affidavit " (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Verify Bureau" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <verify.bureau@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2016 07:18:55 -0800
Subject: Your Abandoned Payment Ready
Hello
We as a consultant to the govt of West Africa Banking Union has been authorize to find out from you.
1. Did you authorize one Mr. John Smith from Montreal Canada to substitute your name with his and backed it up with an affidavit signed by you that your contract sum running into millions of US dollars be paid to him?.
OR
2. Did you decide to abandoned your contract payment due to delays from the relevant agencies etc?.
These are conflicting reports in your filed that made the govt. to put your payment on hold.
Do let us know in your next mail if you will reprocess your payment and then get US$500,000 the govt. is willing to pay you now no matter how much you are owed.
You know that about three to four years ago, some people used your name and address to secure approvals for a contract running into millions of dollars. Along the line, you cut off communication from them because of some charges they levied. That business is real. The govt. want to pay you US$500,000 before Dec. Take advantage of it now and reprocess your payment.
We are waiting for your reply so that we start reprocessing and pay you within the next three weeks.
John Hayes
Director of verification
West Africa Banking UNION (CEDEAO)
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Anti-fraud resources:
