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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "first national bank" (not involved with lotteries)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Davis Wiltord" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dwiltord@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2015 16:53:46 -0000
Subject: Important Notice
Attention!!
Dear Sir/Ma
Are you aware that the amount of US$3.7M was moved into our bank (First National Bank) in your favor as the beneficiary? The US$3.7M arrived in our bank in September, 2014 and has since been in a suspense account. I write this message to you in line with the British financial laws, hence financial institutions are directed by the British financial governing body to divert funds from suspense account to the government treasury as surplus revenue if not claimed by the beneficiary after six (6) Months.
Regards
Mr. Davis Wiltord
Admin Dept
FNB (UK)
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Anti-fraud resources:
