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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:
- "million united state dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "united state dollar" (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: fund <sarah.sarah20007@gmail.com>
Reply-To: accessbankplcdick@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2020 09:56:37 -0700
Subject: To whom it may concern (Beneficiary)
To whom it may concern (Beneficiary)
FUND APPROVED / RESOLUTION TO RELEASE YOUR FUND ..............
We have the mandate of WORLD BANK, to notify you that we have received
several petition submitted to our agency on your behalf through
various security units both from West Africa and United Kingdom.
We are happy to inform you that upon our investigation, we are able to
recover a total sum of US$59,000.00 (FIFTY NINE MILLION UNITED STATE
DOLLARS ONLY) from the perpetrators of this fraud within the WEST
AFRICAN / UNITED KINGDOM SUB-REGION on your behalf.
We therefore advise you to quickly provide us a medium/details where
the aforementioned recovered/approved fund will be transfer to within
the next 48hrs.
You are therefore required to reconfirm your full names,address and
phone contact for the immediate processing of your fund release.
We anticipate a speedy response from you.
We therefore urge you to kindly follow these directives and reconfirm
all your full details as listed below:
(1)Full names
(2) Contact Address
(3)Telephone/Mobile
(4)Occupation
(5)Age/Marital Status
(6)Any means of Identification either passport of Drivers License
attach for your immediately payment release
We look forward to serving you better.
Thanks for your Co-Operation
Mr. Ebuka Ebere
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Anti-fraud resources:
