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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)
- "inheritance funds" (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.
- mrsdorismuller@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Doris Muller<doris@cfca.com.cn>
Reply-To: mrsdorismuller@gmail.com
Date: 10 Nov 2022 08:43:07 +0000
Subject: Attention
Dear friend,
Due to the disheartening loss of Queen Elizabeth the 11, Your Urgent attention is really needed. Sorry for disturbing you at this moment. My name is Mrs. Doris Muller. The chief financial auditor of Lloyds bank London branch in England. One of our customers from your Country mr Kanamaru Masa, has a fixed deposit with my bank, He was not married and did not mention any relation or next of kin on the particular day the account was opened.
Unfortunately He died of Covid in 2020 . I knew about his death because he was my friend and I’m his account officer.
Last week the General Bank of England instructed all the banks in the UK to transfer out all the Inheritance funds in their banks. Because Queen Elizabeth 11 is dead already and the Ministry of finance and the IMF are working on changing the Queen Elizabeth face from the Great Britain Pounds note.
Therefore all inheritance funds must be transferred to its owner with immediate effect. bank management instructed me to reach him concerning his funds for immediate transfer of his fund immediately, but not knowing he is dead.
I am contacting you to see how we can work together to claim the fund so my bank management can release and transfer the fund to your bank account as the Heir to the account since you are from the same country with the deceased.
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Anti-fraud resources:
