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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- 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.
- ericjonathanwood@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "ERIC J. WOOD" (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2018 23:05:27 +0200
Subject: Hello Friend
Dear Friend,
I am Eric Jonathan Wood an Auditor General in one of the major
leading Banks in South Africa. In my HSBC Bank, I discovered an
abandoned large sum of money US$35m (Thirty-Five Million United
States Dollars) belonging to one of our late Foreign Customer since
1999 nobody has operated this account .
The owner of this account is Sean Pienaar a South African National,
also a businessman based in United Kingdom, who was involved in
an air crash in August 2000.
I am basically writing to you to seek your Sincere Co-operation to
present you as the only sole business partner beneficiary to this
deceased Name (Sean Pienaar) Since he specified no beneficiary, and
no other person knows about this Account.
The Strategy/plan is to use my influence As Auditor of the bank to
approve the funds to you.
If you are keen/interested let me know so that I can explain further
details and next procedure/modalities more precisely and the share
ratio.
Kindly respond with your details, such as:
1. Your Full Names:
2. Cell Phone Numbers:
3. Fax Numbers:
4. Postal Address:
5. Occupation:
6. Date of birth:
Please do contact me with this my private e-mail address:
ericjonathanwood@gmail.com
for further details
Sincere Regards.
Mr. Eric J Wood
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Anti-fraud resources:
