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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- 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.
- michaelajones767@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Michael Jones" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <michaelajones767@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 6 May 2018 20:42:31 +0100
Subject: THIS IS FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Sir/Madam,
I am an account manager to a deceased customer who died on the 21st of April 2010 with his wife and two children in auto-crash.
Since after his death,the Board of Directors of my Bank have made several inquiries to reach any of the deceased relatives but to no avail.
The need to contact you came up because the funds is about being declared as unclaimed by our bank. I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the money because you share the same last name.
If you are interested, I will like to get a response from you soon so I can give you further details.
Best regards,
Michael A. Jones
Email: michaelajones767@gmail.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
