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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:
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Jodie Bolton" <info@pbmares.com>
Reply-To: <jodie-bolton@outlook.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2022 05:01:09 -0700
Subject: 4th June 2022
Dear Beneficiary, My name is Mrs. Jodie Bolton, a wealth manager and=
head of global payments with TSB Private Banking in United Kingdom. I am c=
ontacting you regarding the estate of a deceased client with a similar last=
name; and an investment placed under our Bank's management worth GBP4.5 mi=
llion British Pounds Sterling. He left no next of kin and I contact you ind=
ependently as no one is informed of this communication. What I propose =
is that since I have exclusive access to his file, you will be made the ben=
eficiary of these funds after the legalization process is diligently carrie=
d out. I hold the KEY to these funds and from my years of experience as a b=
anker, we see so much cash being re-assigned daily so nobody is getting hur=
t. Kindly express your interest by writing back to me. Whatever your re=
sponse is will be taken in good faith. Regards, Jodie Bolton.=20=20=
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Anti-fraud resources:
