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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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Alonzo Armstrong" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrjamesdougllass@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2018 12:59:05 -0600
Subject: PLEASE CONFIRM IF MR. DANIEL RICKY IS A MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY
Attn: Sir / Any of his relative
Some months ago, your attorney wrote to us that you had a motor accident which affected your spinal cord. He requested that we should not contact you so as to give you
time for full recovery while he takes care of your payment logistics. Just last weeks, your attorney came to notify us that you were dead. He said that you died as a
result of spinal injury you sustained in the accident. It is sad and shocking to hear from your attorney that you were dead about the time every obligation towards
release of your fund has been completed. We hope there isn?t any foul play to your death. Your attorney brought to our office one" Mr.Daniel Rice " whom he introduced
as your relative to now receive your funds.
Since you delegated the chores of your payment logistics to your attorney before the accident, we didn?t have cause to interact with you directly as much until your
death. It is our standard procedure to write the email address of any deceased whenever we get a report of death for affirmation that the person is indeed dead because
strange things do happen especially when money is involved. Experience has taught us that the closest relative of the deceased mostly and often take control of the
deceased email account after death because most people that died relinquishes their private and vital information to their closest relations during the course of
sickness.
We only got to know Mr. Mr.Daniel Rice through your attorney and need a confirmation from any of your family member that he is a true relation. This is to avoid any
kind of unauthorized payment or diversion of payment in collusion with the attorney. Whosoever that has taken possession of this email account after the death of the
real owner should as a matter of urgency get back to us. If after few days we fail to get a reply, we will assume that the death report as received through the
attorney is true and we will accept Mr.Daniel Ricky as the true relation of the deceased and process payment to him. We commiserate with the family for this great loss.
Regards,
Mr. Alonzo Armstrong
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