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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:
- "cotonou" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "centralbankofwestafrican@barid.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: CENTRAL BANK OF WEST AFRICAN <expreafrican@yahoo.com.tw>
Reply-To: CENTRAL BANK OF WEST AFRICAN <Centralbankofwestafrican@barid.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:06:51 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Welcome to Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). Registered
 Welcome to Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). Registered
Address is Avenue john Paul II,
BP 325 Cotonou BENIN Email ( Centralbankofwestafrican@barid.com)
_______________________________________
Introspect to You’re Payment of US$6.8Million. Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) have receive your full information regarding your online banking account information credit in your name and we understand that you need all your transfer log-in information such as Customer Access Code, User Name and Password that will empower you access to login into your funds and start transferred to your designated bank account in your country.And due to International Banking regulations/policies of large funds transfer from the BENIN Government territory, before your account login information such as Customer Access Codes will forward to you today, you must reconfirm your full personal information list bellow to Central Bank of West African States first so that we can verify if you are the rightful beneficiary of this US$6.8Million before Customer Access Codes will release to you in next update.So what we require from you is bellow.
Your Full Name::
Home Address:::
City:::::::::::::::::::
State:::::::::::::::
Zip code::::::::::
Country:::::::::
Your Private Phone Number:::::
Your home and office phone Numbers::::
Your 1 Email Address needed for urgent alert::.......
Your 2 Email Address needed for urgent alert::.......
Your 3 Email Address needed for urgent alert::.......
Also Current Email password needed for secure credit information:::::
And Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) Global Bank will release your online account information to you within 9hours today upon you contact us back with all the information needed from you.
Once again, thank you for choosing Central Bank as we are committed in providing you with the solutions, services and support to help you succeeded in online banking system.www.o-bj.com Sign and Approval
Mr Barry Hornsby. Remittance Director.
Central Bank of West African States
(BCEAO) Cotonou BENIN
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