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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:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "united state of america" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Paul Reading" <malachijcob@gmail.com>
Reply-To: paulreading8@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2017 23:19:12 +0100
Subject: US$7Million: Mr. Paul Reading
Sir,
I am Mr. Paul Reading a Fiduciary Agent with Well Fargo Bank in United
State of America (USA). The purpose of making this contact with you is
because I happen to be close to one of the bank’s Directors who overseas
Foreign Payment.
When I had a financial crosschecking program with him, we discovered that
you are one of the people listed for payment on his desk but you are yet to
make contact with the bank for the release of the fund and your payment
file has been there for so long. I indirectly asked him, what about the
payment release files on your name and he said that he is not sure if you
are dead or alive but it’s none of his business to make contact with you.
This is the reasons why I had to source for your contact to reach you. You
have to contact me back so that I can guide you make contact with the bank
officially unless you have made up your mind to let go this fund claim on
your name valued at US$7Million.
Please, do not disclose this secret with anybody else because I am not
supposed to be contacting you as the bank is helping me on my business but
I felt it would be candid and helpful to notify you, hoping that when you
receive this fund you will not forget me.
Await your response
Yours Faithfully
Mr. Paul Reading
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Anti-fraud resources:
