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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: "Dr. John Idika" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnmuccary@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 2 May 2018 20:09:11 +0200
Subject: Re: Good News To You
ATTENTION: BENEFICIARY
THIS IS TO INFORM YOU THAT THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE HAS SHORT LISTED YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND NAME FOR THE PAYMENT OF USD $15.1 MILLION. THIS DOUBLES AS YOUR NOTICE OF APPROVAL AND LETTER OF DEFINITE ASSURANCE. THIS PAYMENT APPROVAL IS IRREVOCABLE AS IT IS ALREADY ISSUED OUT.
DR KALU .E. KALU IS APPOINTED TO HANDLE THE PAYMENT TO YOU. YOU ARE HEREBY ADVISED TO COME FORWARD FOR THIS PAYMENT. TO COLLECT THE PAYMENT YOU WOULD BE REQUIRED TO RECONFIRM THE BELOW INFORMATION IN LINE WITH THE APPROVAL LAW. YOU ARE TO THEN SUBMIT A RECEIVING ACCOUNT TO RECEIVE THE PAYMENT. AS YOU GO THROUGH THIS NOTICE, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR PAYMENT OFFICER WITH THE DETAILS BELOW:
PAYMENT OFFICER:
DR. KALU .E. KALU
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR INHERITANCE
PLEASE YOU ARE PROVIDE YOUR FULL INFORMATION SUCH AS STATED BELOW,
[1] NAME:
[2] ADDRESS:
[3] AGE: [4] SEX:
[5] TELEPHONE & FAX:
[6] YOUR COMPANY’S NAME AND ADDRESS
[7] BANKING INFORMATION:
[8] OCCUPATION STATUS:
You are approved and asked to apply for this payment because the Federal Ministry of Finance payment computer authenticated your email data as the right payment code to pull the fund under Inheritance/Contract payment! Please consider this note as an item of high security value and a matter of high importance to act and follow it through immediately for the payment is time bound.
Every year due to international trade obligations, the board of the Federal Ministry of Finance revisits old contract files by using random email codes to unblock suspended payments in the central computer system.
Congratulations!
Mr Benard Harrison (pa)
For: Executive Director FMF.
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Anti-fraud resources:
