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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:
- "million pounds" (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)
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- "barrister" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- "chambers" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
- 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.
- barr_luc@aol.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Thwaite <info@jjthw.com>
Reply-To: barr_luc@aol.com
Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2022 10:48:46 -0300
Subject: Congratulations
Dear beneficiary,
Our names are Joe and Jess Thwaite, we won One Hundred and eighty four Million
Pounds and we have commenced our Donation and Grant since we have been touched
to donate part of our winnings to charity through you for the good work of
humanity as we have been ill for some time and do not know if we can survive
this illment which is presently eating us up. We do not know if we are
going to
survive and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum of one million euro to
you and five(5) other families each as part of our charity project to improve
the lot of 5 unknown lucky individuals all over the world plus family and give
back to the local communities.
You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/19/euromillions-uk-biggest-lottery-
winner-184m-couple-gloucester/
Your email address was luckily selected using a balloting system and you
received this email because we accepted you as a lucky beneficiary.
Kindly contact Barrister Lucas Moore / barr_luc@aol.com (Zenith Chambers) with
Code: JJT3221 and also fill the below information and return via email so that
he can process your funds for disbursement.
1) Your Full Names:
2)Resident Address:
3)Telephone Number:
Good luck,
Joe and Jess Thwaite.
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Anti-fraud resources:
