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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "united state of america" (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Ralf Kohl <oknhac@gmail.com>
Reply-To: kohl.ralf@aol.com
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2019 21:42:08 -0400
Subject: Please Read
--
I'm Ralf Kohl Citibank Payment Coordinator. I'm working for Citibank
Washington DC United State of America. The Federal Reserve Bank/United
State Government has given the Citibank (Citigroup) instructions to
compensate every scam victims. The (Chairman of Citigroup) Mr. Michael
Corbat ask me personal to see to that your funds of US$1,550,000,00 been
credited into your bank account, but I have been trying to credit the
said fund into your bank account and it kept bouncing back and kept
bouncing back over and over again asking for your activation before your
account will be credited .
Kindly get back to us on how you want us to credit your account.
Thank You.
Ralf Kohl,
Citibank Payment Coordinator
Washington DC.
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Anti-fraud resources:
