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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:
- "utmost confidentiality" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Javier R Ramirez" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <javierramirez@mail.ua>
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2017 19:24:35 +0200
Subject: Notification!!
Hello
I am Javier R Ramirez the Chief Executive Officer of a renowned law and auditing firm here in Spain. I was contracted to audit the accounting section of some firms in Spain. This audit in line with government policies and account reconciliation became necessary following the current European Economic crisis which Spain happens to be one of the most pretentious countries with the Euro Zone.
During my audits, I discovered several dormant accounts due to inactivity. some of the said account has been dormant for over a decade as the initial owner of funds had passed on. Against this backdrop, I decided to contact you in order to confirm whether or not you know or are related to the deceased family? This is because from our preliminary findings, your and one of the deceased happen to bear same surname and common heritage.
Lastly, owing to the sensitivity of this situation, I urge you to keep this proposal in utmost confidentiality pending our discussion. I expect your response to enable me send you more informations.
Thanks for your time and expecting your response.
Email: javierramirez00221@ g m a i l . c o m
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Anti-fraud resources:
