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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:
- "western union" (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. )
- "(ecowas)" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
Fraud email example:
From: "Office Of The ECOWAS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <frstbnkngr01@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2017 09:26:15 -0700
Subject: Victims Compensation
Attention:
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is compensating all the scam victims and your email address was found in the scam victim's list. The Western Union office has been fully mandated to transfer a compensation sum of US$5.5M.
You are $5,000 twice daily through Western Union® Money Transfer, until the total sum of $5.500.000 Million is completely transferred to you.
Our problem is that we can not be able to send the payment with your email address alone, therefore we need your information as to where we will be sending the funds, such as;
Receiver’s name:...........
Address:...........
Country:...........
Phone number:...........
Reply back with your full information. Note that your payment files will be returned to the ECOWAS within 72 hours if we did not hear from you as instructed by the ECOWAS. We will start the transfer as soon as we received your information.
Thanks,
Mr.Robert James
(Director Scam Victims)
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Anti-fraud resources:
