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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.
- 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: "Mr. Paul Lawnson" <"www."@honey.ocn.ne.jp>
Reply-To: "Mr. Paul Lawnson" <transferpaymentofficefile@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2017 08:04:23 +0900 (JST)
Subject: ATM CARD--- CODE (222)
Attention:Sir/Madam,
Good News, the paying Bank has processed your ATM Card Funds with the help of Central Bank Of Benin and I have collected the Card from them this morning on your behalf.Or you can choose your payment method.
The meeting we had yesterday with Government Auditors states that we should give you 5 days notice to claim your funds or else they will cancel the payment and your funds would be diverted into the Federal Government suspense account for their use.
I advise you come down and pick the Card or should I send it to you by courier means? Meanwhile, the Bank told me that they will send you the PIN NUMBER direct for security reasons and they also told me that you can only withdraw $20,000.00 daily from This Card for years because they Credited $10.7Million inside the Card.
Hope to hear from you once you receive this email.
Best Regards,
Mr.Paul Lawnson
Central Bank Of Benin
Foreign Resident Representative
Telephone (+229-6798-9520)
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Anti-fraud resources:
