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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- ",500,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- "you are advice to " (this email uses bad English)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "BANK OF AMERICA" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <magretjohnsonshilohseason@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2023 07:24:19 -0700
Subject: URGENT REPLY
Bank of America Corporate Office
Headquarters 100 South West Missouri,NC
28255 Our Ref:BOA/IRU/SFE/15.5/WD/011
United States of America
Good day…. .
With due respect, due to finding it difficult in receiving your
pending payment through other method because of one reason or the
other . we wish to inform you that your payment of $4.5Millions United
state Dollars ($4,500,000.00) has called back to our bank and also has
been program
for immediate Transferred. Without wasting much of your time we have
three ways of disbursing
funds to our customers and below are the option so you are advice to
choose from the below options.
1. Non-Resident Savings Account (Online Account).
2. Bank to Bank wire Transfer.
3. Loaded ATM CARD :
Kindly reconfirm your details as below
your full name
your delivery address
your direct cell phone number
Occupation
scan copy of your Id
THANKS AND REGARDS,
BOARD OF FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT/FUND TRANSFER DEPARTMENT
BANK OF AMERICA P.L.C
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Anti-fraud resources:
