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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: "ULSTER BANK " <info-staff@atis.co.jp>
Reply-To: aedmund.ulsbank@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 07:10:44 -0700
Subject: EMAIL FROM ULSTER BANK ACCOUNTS UNIT
Dear Sir,
Ulster Bank eLectronic Notification Service (UBeNS)
Did you direct or authorized any wire transfer deposit to our charity bank account? We have received an amount of USD450,948.12 through our charity bank account on your behalf ,which we do not know what this funds is for.
Our bank do not have any transaction with your company that we know about so we wonder why making or depositing such payment to us.
Attached remittance document stipulates/revealed that this remittance is made by United Nations/IMF compensation exercise . Our question is, why remitting that amount to our charity account rather than going direct to your banking account. We advise you to double-check with your bank and then get back to us.
We must be very optimistic about this deposit before considering a wire. You are hereby advised to send your full name and country for re-confirmation and be sure.
Thanks and best regards
Ulster Accounts Unit
London
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Anti-fraud resources:
