joewein.de LLC fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter! Free trial for 30 days

"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
• Support our efforts to stop scams!
  
• How to report 419 spam to us
• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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.

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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "atm payment department" (this phrase is often used in the ATM card payment scam)
  • "activation fee" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. Never ever send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally. )
  • "huge amount of money" (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)
  • "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
• This email message is a "New Partner from Paraguay" scam.
• This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
  • +22993991335 (Benin, probably a prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: "dom john" <dom_john18@gala.net>
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 06:43:11 +0100
Subject: CONTACT ATM CARD


Dear Friend,

This is to inform you about my success in transfering your money into an
ATM master card to curtail the risk of carrying huge amount of money
arround.We are the peole that coded this amount of money in the card and we
are going to tell you how to make use of it.Presently i'm out of the country
for investing my own part of the total money.

Meanwhile,i didn't forget your past efforts and attempts to assist me in
moving the cash despite that both of us could not make it.


Now contact ATM PAYMENT DEPARTMENT and their email address is (
atm_card_2008@live.fr) ask them to send you the sum of eight hundred and
fifty thousand us dollars ( $850.000.00) in an ATM MASTER CARD which i kept
for your
compensation for all the past efforts and attempts to assist me in this
matter.


this card centre will send you an ATM card which you will use to withdraw
your money in any ATM machine in any part of the world, the maximum is Five
Thousand United State Dollars per day.

I appreciated your efforts at that time very much,So feel free and get in
touched with the ATM PAYMENT DEPARTMENT and instruct them on where to send
your total share of the money to you.

Therefore do not hesitate to contact Oceanic Bank Benin ATM payment
department centre and also re-confirm the following information as listed
below:

1. Full Name
2. Address were you want them to send the ATM card
3. Phone number (private)
4. Your age and current occupation
5. Country Name and Code

Forward the above inforamation to:
Dr. mike Williams,Director, ATM payment department Oceanic Bank Benin Benin
Republic. Direct line:+229-93-991-335,
Emails:(atm_card_2008@live.fr)

Please do let me know immediately you receive it so that we can share the
joy together after all the sufferness at that time. In the moment, i am very
busy here investing with my new partner.

Remember that you are going to pay a reactivation fee and it is for the
reactivation of your card against it's expiry before the delivery is made.

The reason for the reactivation fee is that the account has been there for a
long time while the government was doing serious investigations on the right
owner of the money before this conclusion was made.

Finally, I have forwarded instructions to the DEPARTMENT to send the
Confirmable ATM MASTER CARD to you, so feel free to get in touch with the
DEPARTMENTand they will send the CARD to you without any delay.

DO FAST AND CONTACT THEM IMMEDIATELY OK?

Best Regards,
MR.dom john

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam