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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- 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.
- stevegibson4biz@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Steve Gibson <6gugu@xyz.com>
Reply-To: stevegibson4biz@gmail.com
Date: 09 May 2021 21:00:00 +0200
Subject: Re: Unclaimed Inheritance
user disk fm
Dear Friend,
I am a financial consultant and property manager working in the Middle East/Asia and Africa, I am contacting you in respect of my late client's fund of £12.7M British pounds sterling deposited with a bank for safe keeping which is about to be confiscated by the Government after many years unclaimed.I decided to contact you after several efforts to locate any of his family members over this years and because you bear the same last name with him
so I decided to reach out to you and try my faith,maybe you could be interested to work with me since I have been requested for the last time to provide a next of kin of my client as his wife who happens to be the next of kin is died two years ago .
Note that everything will perfectly arranged and 100% risk free to that Kindly indicate your interest by sending me your:
Full name;
Age;
Marital status;
Postal address;
Job;
phone number;
You will be entitled to 50 %; 40 % for me and 10 % to defray all cost.
Best regards,
Steve Gibson
Chief Financial Consultant,
Reply to: stevegibson4biz@gmail.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
