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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
- taskforce1@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: IMF EUROPE <p89_andrea@alice.it>
Reply-To: pierenta89_andrea@outlook.com
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2018 23:21:40 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: FROM IMF EUROPE
Dear Sir
My name is Pierenta Andrea of the Europe office of the Funds Transfer Tracking
Bureau of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). I am mandated to inform you
that we received reports that you have a transaction overseas. The report shows
that among other things you were issued a VISA ATM Card. For some
unconventional reasons this transaction was not Concluded and your goals were
not accomplished. Consequently we finally traced the Origin and location of the
funds. We therefore decided that your funds will be released to you through an
Auto Loaded System (ALS) by a bank here in Europe who we have designated for
that, who will oversee the smooth release of your funds. You are therefore
advised to contact FATF who will facilitate the release of your funds to you
through an auto loaded system (ALS). FATF E-mail contact is: fatf.
taskforce1@hotmail.com
Please note that FATF has all information about the legal origin of the funds
that we traced for your release. You should therefore contact them on how your
funds will be released to you through an auto loaded system
Best Regards
Pierenta Andrea
IMF EUROPE
ATM Tracking department.
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Anti-fraud resources:
