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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 beloved," (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.
- revericriley@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Rev Eric Riley" <angel@millionlink.com>
Reply-To: revericriley1@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2023 01:58:37 -0700
Subject: PEACE BE WITH YOU
Dear Beloved,
I am Reverend Fr. Eric Riley from St. Joseph Catholic Church here in the U=
SA, it's very pathetic that we lost Rev. Sister Patricia Johnson of St. Jos=
eph Catholic Church. Late Rev. Sister Patricia Johnson died on 28th January=
2023 and before she died, she made a will and instructed me to contact you=
on your email when she died as the next of kin of the fund as her spirit d=
irected.
I am glad to inform you that late Rev. Sister Patricia Johnson made you th=
e beneficiary of her will through your e-mail address, you might be wonderi=
ng how late Rev. Sister Patricia Johnson made you the beneficiary of her wi=
ll.
Late Rev. Sister Patricia Johnson made a random sampling of many people's =
e-mail addresses by the help of Microsoft international firm and among the =
people email addresses, yours came out as a draw and this is how late Siste=
r Patricia Johnson made you the beneficiary of her will and instruct that y=
ou can only be informed when he pass on and memorial service Completed.
I await your response message on (revericriley@gmail.com).
God bless you
Rev. Eric Riley
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Anti-fraud resources:
