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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:
- "inheritance funds" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Eric Rosengren (Payment Committee)" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <paymentsunitifc@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2019 00:50:57 +0200
Subject: Fwd; Payment Directives Issued For Your Payment
Your Urgent Attention Required:
Please be informed that your long awaited and overdue Payment and Compensation have been Verified and Ready for instant payment to you upon your response. This payment is among the list of payments listed as unpaid and unclaimed funds either abandoned at various airport vaults as undelivered consignments or at various bank accounts. These fund are listed as Contract Funds, Inheritance Funds, Investment Funds and Lottery/Lotto Funds which have not be paid nor claimed by the respective beneficiaries and the Authorities have approved the immediate payments of all these funds after proper verification of the details of the respective beneficiaries. This payment however will be at NO COST to you. You are required to urgently send us your details for proper official verification of your details for your immediate payment release. This is to ensure we are in contact with the legitimate and actual beneficiary of these funds and to avoid releasing the payments wrongly to unauthorized
person.
Reply urgently and ensure you send in your details for verification and payment.
Regards,
Eric Rosengren
Unclaimed Funds Payments Committee
Federal Reserve Bank
Washington DC USA
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Anti-fraud resources:
