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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 next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "George M. Lyon" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <georgemichaellyon7@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 May 2019 21:39:47 -0700
Subject: Noted that this notice is valid for 14 working days
Attention:Beneficiary!
This message is coming to you from the European Commission
regarding your unclaimed funds which we have traced to a bank
account in UK.
The governing Body of the bank stated that the funds has been
in their custody since last two years. We wish to inform you
that your total fund of ($10M) has been approved to be release
in your favour without any delay.
Be informed that we have mandated all banks in the UK
to release all unclaimed funds to the beneficiaries with immediate
effect.
Noted that this notice is valid for 14 working days, if the beneficiary
did not respond, the total fund will be diverted into UK government
treasury Account.hence you are receiving this notice from us .
You are required to provide your complete details as stated below
to enable us forward to the bank to facilitate the release of your funds.
Your Full Name:
Your Address:
Your Phone Number:
Your Next Of Kin:
Your Age and Occupation:
Thanks,
Mr.George M. Lyon
For The European Commission
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Anti-fraud resources:
