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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 us 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)
- "lagos" (a location commonly mentioned 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: "Access Bank" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <atmcardactivation55@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2022 05:34:58 -0700
Subject: Dear Customer
Access Bank PLC
Commercial bank
Access Bank Head Office, Plot 999c
Danmole St, Victoria Island, Lagos
Dear customer,
On behalf of Access bank Plc managements i am contacting you today the 15th day of April 2022 on the update on this last process of Converting your total funds from Euros to US dollars which is why you were on able to make use of your old atm card from United Bank for Africa Plc as the old card is been issue to you by United Bank for Africa Plc is on a euros account and all atm machine in your country only pay out in United States Dollar, after today meeting with the managements of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and United Bank for Africa Plc we the Access bank Plc managements have been mandated to issue a new ATM VISA CARD worth $18.5 million us dollars to your name which is the last process to enable you start making your cash withdraws of $50,000:00 out from your atm visa card in any atm machine in your and as we have stated in today meeting with the managements of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as this last currency Converting process will onl
y take 24 working hours
Thank you for choosing Access Bank
Herbert Wigwe
Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank
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Anti-fraud resources:
