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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "CHAIRMAN PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE ON FORIEGN PAYMENT (PCFP)" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <stevejohnx5@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:23:51 -0800
Subject: ATTENTION: Beneficiary
ATTENTION: Beneficiary,
Be informed that the World Bank Auditors are presently sitting in West Africa supervising the payment of contract/inheritance fund that originates all around Africa. This supervision exercise was part of the agreement signed between the joint meetings of this office, Ecowas, United Nations and the African Union.
Your name appeared in the Central Computer among the list of unpaid contract/inheritance beneficiaries who will receive a part-payment of $6.8million. The fund has been approved for immediate payment to you via a SWIFT CARD PAYMENT cashable in any ATM machine worldwide.
This card system will allow you to make withdrawal of maximum fifty thousand dollars per day in any ATM machine. Kindly respond urgently with the below information which will be used to program the fund to you for further withdrawal.
1. YOUR FULL NAME & ADDRESS. 2. YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER. 3. YOUR AGE 4. YOUR NEXT OF KIN NAME 5. DRIVER'S LAICENCE OR INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT NUMBER.
We therefore demand for your full benefit in this payment process. We hereby issue you our code of conduct code for identification to eliminate fraud. Indicate this code (ATM-8807) when contacting this card center by using it as your subject.
Sincerely,
STEVE JOHN
CHAIRMAN PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE ON FORIEGN PAYMENT (PCFP)
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Anti-fraud resources:
