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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:
- "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- "johnbrennan.cia@outlook.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. John Brennan" <ron.kenzi555@gmail.com>
Reply-To: johnbrennan.cia@outlook.com
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2022 04:41:48 -0700
Subject: ATTENTION BENEFICIARY:
--
ATTENTION BENEFICIARY:
We have decided to contact you immediately because we caught one of
our staff trying to present a lady as your representative to receive
your US$15.5M dollars. But when we started asking her some sensitive
questions concerning the fund, she could not give correct answer.
So, we have her arrested and she confessed about her involvement with
the staff. The two of them are now in police detention. You are
therefore advice to read and get back with your details to enable us
start the processing of your fund release immediately.
I need the below information to make sure we have the real information
Fill the below information .
Full Name:
Delivery Address:
Country:
Occupation:
Phone Number:
Fax Number:
Age:
Sex:
Status:
I wish you plenty of luck. As I await for your urgent prompts response
back to this email as soon as possible.
Best regards,
John Brennan
Foreign Remittance Department
( johnbrennan.cia@outlook.com )
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Anti-fraud resources:
