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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found 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.
- mrsboonsripong202@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs. Boonsri Pongpanit" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrsboonsripong202@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2019 21:44:21 -0000
Subject: Greetings
Hello Dear Friend,
How are you? I hope you're fine. I know that this email will come to you as a surprise as we have never met before but need not to worry. Well my name is Mrs. Boonsri Pongpanit from Bangkok, Thailand but i live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Anyway let me go straight to the point. I inherited some money ($ 4.2 million) from my late husband and i cannot think of anybody trying to kill me apart from my late husband's second wife here in Malaysia in order to inherit the money because she is a Malaysian by nationality. Please i want you to get back to me as soon as possible. Once i hear from you that you are competent to execute my desire, i will instruct my lawyer and the bank management to make the immediate transfer to your account. I will give you the documents of the money and will also direct you to my lawyer who will work it out legally for you. The lawyer will assist you to change the documents of the money to your name to enable the bank transfer the money to you. This is the favour
i need you to do for me
(1) Give 20% of the total money to churches for the work of God
(2) Give 30% of the total money to handicap people and charity organization
Then the remaining 50% is all yours but if i don't hear from you, i will look for another person or an organization. Please get back to me as soon as possible. May Almighty God bless you and use you to accomplish my wish.
Here is my private email (mrsboonsripong202@gmail.com)
Regards,
Mrs. Boonsri Pongpanit
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Anti-fraud resources:
