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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- unitybkd@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Bank" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <unitybkd@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2017 12:38:01 -0700
Subject: ACCEPT THESE FUNDS ON %
Hello,
Am Fred Jacob manager with unity finance house and we have some
funds in a dormant account for the past a year plus now belonging to our
late customer [Catherine Lawton]who lost her life in a missing Malaysia
airline MH370 and all efforts to trace the next of kin as proved
abortive till date.
You can confirm the story on ;- BBC News - Missing Malaysia plane: The
passengers on ...
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26503469
I now need a reliable person to take possesion of these funds for both
of us to share on %
Get back to me urgently if you are interested
Email;- unitybkd@gmail.com
Fred Jacob
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Anti-fraud resources:
