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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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Agent Charlene B.Thornton" <uba.bankpayment64@gmail.com>
Reply-To: fbiagentcbt01@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2022 07:07:26 -0700
Subject: Your Over Due Payment
This is Agent Charlene Thornton and we are here in Nigeria as an FBI/UNITED
NATION delegate that have been delegated to investigate these fraudsters
who are in the business of swindling Foreigners that came for transaction
in Nigeria .
Please be informed that during our investigation, we found out that there
is a total sum amount of money $16.2 million that has been assigned in your
name as the beneficiary and these fraudsters are busy swindling you without
any hope of receiving your fund.
These are the works of the fraudsters who needed to extort money from you
in the name of this transfer. We have to inform you that we have made some
arrests in respect of this delayed overdue fund. I have a very limited time
to stay in Nigeria here so I advise you urgently to respond to this message
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Anti-fraud resources:
