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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:
- "money gram" (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 send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
Fraud email example:
From: Money Gram Office <officefile2357@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Money Gram Office <menter_s@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 21:33:44 +0900 (JST)
Subject: The first payment
The first payment $5000.00 was sent today through Money Gram So get back to this office to have the info to pick up your first payment of $5000 today out of your total sum of $2.8 Million.
We will be sending you $5000 Dollars every day because to transfer the total sum $2.8 million to your account will cost you big amount of money for the transferring fees and that's why United Nations give us the order to be sending you $5000 Dollars every day until you receive your total sum $2.8 million completely.
You have to reply back to me as soon you receive this message to have the payment information of your first payment of $5000 Note; you have to indicate yourself by filling the bellow info for the identification of your payment slip among others payment slips which was made today to the other beneficiaries.
The scan copy of your Money Gram payment slip will be forwarded to you immediately upon your responds to this message, so quickly get back to me to pick up your first payment of $5000.00 so that we can process the second payment, because you should keep receiving payment slip of $5000 from this office until you receive your total sum $2.8 million ok.
1 Your Full Name:
2 Telephone number:
3 Addresses:
4 Countries:
5 Ages:
A copy of your ID:
Regards
Mrs. Anita Lucas
Phone +229- 9994-0060
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Anti-fraud resources:
