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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:
- "huge amount of money" (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)
- "you are advice to " (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: HEAD OFFICE <hudev009@gmail.com>
Reply-To: officef.president@bk.ru
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2022 11:16:29 +0100
Subject: YOUR URGENT REPLY IS NEEDED THAT IS IF YOU ARE STILL ALIVE
--
Please can you confirm this to us before we make a
mistake,
somebody called me today with this number 3607276648 saying that he is
your brother, he said that you died since 3 days ago and before this
happened you
asked him to receive the funds on your behalf. He forwarded his
address for us to send the Funds direct to him;
1121 Odena RD S Sylacauga, AL - Alabama 35150
But we are not sure about this. So that is why I am writing to know if
this is true or not. Please this fund is not something we could just
make any silly
mistake or sending it to the wrong person because the money is huge
amount of money $10.5million usdollars So this man is getting us
confused on what he is
saying about your death.
I am sending this mail to you to find out the truth before I make any
mistake. I told the man to give me 2days to think about it. The man
said that his name
is Mr. Larry he is from Alabama. So am sending this message to confirm
the truth but if I don't hear from anyone in the next 2days I will
hand over
everything to him.
You are advice to reconfirm the following info;
1. FULL NAME:.....................................
2. FULL CONTACT ADDRESS:.........
3. TELEPHONE NUMBER:..................
4. And passport photograph or driven license.
5. OCCUPATION:...........
Awaiting an urgent respond.
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Anti-fraud resources:
