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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:
- "international court of justice" (not involved with lotteries)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: PAUL THURSTON <pault@thurson.th.tn>
Reply-To: <paul.thurston@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2016 12:47:09 -0400
Subject: YOUR FUNDS HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY TRANSFERED
ATTENTION:
This is to officially inform you that we have transferred your long awaited payment ($50,000,000.00) this morning following the order from the International court of Justice (ICJ).
The transfer was made on the directive of International Court of Justice (ICJ) this morning and below is the account information we have transfer the money into. Please you are required to go through it and confirm if the transfer was made into the right account if not quickly get back to us so that we can STOP the transfer before it reflected into the account.
Name :Michael Williams
Account :435078320424
Routing International :026009593
Regular Routing :051000011
we will appreciate your urgent attention towards this.
Good Luck
HSBC Management
Yours Sincerely,
PAUL THURSTON
(PT62 CEO)
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
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Anti-fraud resources:
