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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Timothy Lowenberg <timothylowenberg78@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ambassa.dor@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2022 21:21:10 +0100
Subject: GOOD DAY DEAR
Good day dear;
This is Patrick Mohaney United States Former Ambassador to the
Republic of Benin,
I will like to inform you that a meeting was had yesterday. According
to the meeting had by the Executive Council Members and when the
meeting was going on Mr. Gregory Udo the head of IMF office brought
the issue of your ATM card funds sum of $4.5m in the IMF office and
asking me as a slogan of United State Ambassadors and also asking
whether you are not interested with your fund, then if you are not
interested with this your ATM card sum of 4.5m in the IMF office since
let it be confiscated and sent into the government treasury account as
a government treasury by the next meeting. And I told him to wait let
me hear from you first confiscated of you fund. So what is the matter?
Have a good day
God bless
Patrick Mohaney
United States Former Ambassador to the Republic of Benin
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Anti-fraud resources:
