joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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:

Fraud email example:

From: United States Department of the Homeland Security <united.nations.zip@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dhsdeskofficial@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2023 23:42:23 -0700
Subject: DEAR BENEFICIARY

--
I am Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary to U.S Department of Homeland
Security Washington DC, with office Address 3801 Nebraska Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20016, United States of America. We received a report
from United Nations that you have an abandoned funds worth $2.5
million in Philippines.

I have instructed the United Nations and concerned authorities to
bring the funds to our head office in Washington DC. The funds will
arrive in my office today. I will kindly ask you to reconfirm your
full name, current address, your direct cellphone number so that I can
arrange for the delivery of the consignment to your home address. You
can reach me at +1(202)683-8721. You can leave me a message if I am
unavailable to answer thanks.

Yours Faithfully

Alejandro Mayorkas
Homeland Security Secretary

Anti-fraud resources: