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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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "WWW" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <inlfo92@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 14:09:31 +0100
Subject: PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS NOW
Office of John C. Scott III
Bank of New York Mellon,
Wealth Management Office
1250 H Street NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
DEAR SIR/MADAM,
THIS IS OFFICIALLY INFORMING YOU THAT YOUR OVERDUE PAYMENT HAS BEEN APPROVED. PLEASE CALL OUR CENTRALIZED NUMBER +1 641-715-3800. YOU WILL BE ASKED TO PUT IN YOUR ACCESS CODE NUMBER:89498 FOLLOWED BY THE# KEY.
THEN LISTEN TO THE VOICE PROMPT AND PRESS 1 TO VERIFY YOUR ACCOUNT NAME WITH OUR BANK, WHEN ASKED FOR YOUR VERIFICATION PIN PUT IN 507 AND THEN PRESS 2 TO ENTER YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER: 6500760021 AND LISTEN THEN PRESS 3 TO ENTER YOUR TRANSFER CODE: 7007 THEN PRESS 9 YOU HAVE TO CONFIRM YOUR BANK INFORMATION AS WE WOULD COMPLETE ALL ISSUES OF THIS PAYMENT.
We hope to hear from you soon.
Faithfully Yours,
John Scott III
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Anti-fraud resources:
