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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- 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.
- jeremygeorge71@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Jeremy George" <bakriholding16@gmail.com>
Reply-To: jeremygeorge71@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2020 00:29:37 +0100
Subject: I urge you to treat this letter very seriously...is urgent.
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Greetings To You !!!
Firstly, I am Mr. Jeremy George, the Group Finance Director of Lloyds
Banking Group United Kingdom. I am contacting you for a legitimate
business transaction strictly for you and me alone. I personally
discovered a dormant account with a total sum of £35,000.000.00-[
Thirty-Five Million GBP Only ] here in our bank. The owner of this
dormant account died on 4th Jan 2012. Since his death, nobody has
operated in his account because the account has NO BENEFICIARY
attached to it.
I wish to present you as the next of kin to the bank. Kindly get back
to me as soon as possible for more details on how to proceed further.
Private Email: jeremygeorge71@yahoo.com
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Regards,
Mr. Jeremy George.
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Anti-fraud resources:
