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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "moneygram" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "money gram" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "mtcn" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "we advice you" (this email uses bad English)
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- MoneyGram money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. Along with Western Union it is a preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- moneygramtransfer63@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: MONEY GRAM OFFICE <"WWW."@vesta.ocn.ne.jp>
Reply-To: MONEY GRAM OFFICE <moneygramtransfer63@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2017 11:46:14 +0900 (JST)
Subject: FUND TRANSFER VIA MONEY GRAM
The International Monetary Fund Annual Compensation from USA.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is compensating some scam
victims and your email address was found in the scam victims list.
This Money Gram®office has been mandated by the IMF to transfer your
compensation to you via Money Gram®Money Transfer.
However, we have concluded to affect your own payment through
Money Gram®Money Transfer, $5000 pay day until the total sum of
$1.5 Million United States is completely transferred to you the
receiver. We cannot be able to send the payment with your email
address alone, we are hereby needed your information to where we will
be sending the funds.
Here is the information to pick up your first payment of $5000
through Money Gram store close to you.
Money Reference Number (REF):69133972
Sender's First Name: kejko
Sender's Last Name: use this last name and track your fund ike
MTCN:#69133972 (Track the MTCN by visiting:::::::::
https://secure.moneygram.com/track)
GET BACK TO US WITH YOUR FULL INFO TO AVOID WRONG TRANSFER
(Receivers name)............
(Country).......................
(Address)................................
(Phone Number).....................
(Your Age)..................................
(ID copy)............. ..................
BEFORE YOU CAN BE ABLE TO PICK UP YOUR FIST PAYMENT YOU WILL PAY FOR
THE TRANSFER CHARGE OF $190 so my dear we advice you to
proceed to any money gram around you and make the payment of $190 usd so
that we can proceed with your transfer with out any delay okay
HERE IS THE INFO YOU WILL USE TO SEND THE TRANSFER CHARGE
RECEIVERS FIRST NAME::::::William
RECEIVERS LAST NAME::::::::::::oforma
COUNTRY::::::::::::::::BENIN REPUBLIC
CITY :::::::::COTONOU
TEXT QUESTION ::::::URGENT
TEXT ANSWER ::::::;NEEDED
AMOUNT:::::::$190 USD
NOTE: That your payment files will be returned to the IMF within 72hours if we
did not hear from you because this was the instruction given to us by the IMF
office here in USA. We will start the transfer as soon as we received
your information. You are hereby warned not to communicate or duplicate this
message for any reason what so ever because the US FBI is already on trace of
the criminals from Africa.
Sincerely,
Name: Mr. Larry Amstler
moneygramtransfer63@hotmail.com
MONEY GRAM USA
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Anti-fraud resources:
