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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:
- "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- 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.
- branchoffice.ecowasbank@accountant.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: ECO BANK <transferdepartmentoffice00@gmail.com>
Reply-To: branchoffice.ecowasbank@accountant.com
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2018 13:06:31 +0100
Subject: THIS FUND DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU:TRUE OR FALSE??????
Attention Sir
I am Dr Edwin Briscoe,manager of Ecowas bank Nigeria.I am writing to
you because of your pending payment of $25.5m which i noticed have
taken much longer time without you been paid.But the main reason i am
writing to you is for you to open up to me because i am ready to
cooperate with you.What i want is you to be truthful to me concerning
your fund.I find out that the inheritance/contract fund which you are
trying to claim does not belong to you.I have made my investigations
and i discovered that you did not execute any contract in Nigeria or
the deceased person whom you are trying to claim his money is not your
relative and does not WILL his fund to you.That is why you have not
received the fund till now because of some errors in the certificates
that were presented with your file which made the former ecobank
manager to stop your payment before he was retired.But i am ready to
cooperate with you and amend every error in your payment file for you
to receive your fund,but you and i must enter into a comprehensive
agreement to share this fund 50-50 because it is not your fund.But if
you do not agree to my condition that means i Will back out and
forward my report to CENTRAL BANK for immediate cancelation of the
payment as fraud.I wait your positive reply.
Dr Edwin Briscoe
Ecowas Bank Nigeria
branchoffice.ecowasbank@accountant.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
