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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 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.
- jones.andrew90@aol.com (AOL; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: JONES ANDREW <mimmoromita@tin.it>
Reply-To: jonesandrew90@protonmail.com
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2020 14:05:58 +0100 (CET)
Subject: DISCOVERING OF YOUR FUNDS
Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
IMF Resident Representative Office in South Africa
Hello Dear,
I am writing from Finance Department of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) South Africa.
I wish to inform you about your fund that was stopped and placed On-
hold by the IMF Office because of non provision of the legal Documents
when the transaction was carried out as i can see from your file here.I
discovered this fund value $10.5 Million under IMF custody being with
your name and email address tag in your file Inheritance/Winning fund.
For your information the fund can be release and transfer to an account
of your choice world wide hence I am concern.
I have gone through your file and found out why it was stopped and with
my position I can get it release to you legally if you will tell me
what will be my reward when release to your account.I will secure the
two documents that will be needed for the fund to be release to you
when i hear from you.Meanwhile fill the attached IMF release form and
return it back to me ASAP via this email:( jones.andrew90@aol.com ).
Looking forward to hear from so we can proceed.
Regards,
Andrew Jones.
IMF Resident Representative Officer.
South Africa.
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Anti-fraud resources:
