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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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 sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- marthamarthaballard1@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "MARTHA BALLARD" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <marthamarthaballard1@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2022 08:06:30 -0700
Subject: YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN >>
Dear Sir/Madam,
This notification is from Scott Godfrey Foundation Legal representative and you are to benefit from the above mentioned family charity project aimed at touching lives and helping those in need across the world in this period of global epidemic.
This donation of $3M(Three Million United States Dollar) is made out to you and mostly to generously help Scott Godfrey Foundation extend hands of giving to the less privileged, orphans and charity organizations within your locality.
My client( Scott Godfrey ) won the $699.8 million Mega Millions jackpot on October 4,2021 ,the lucky winner lives Morro Bay,California and you can verify this by visiting
https://www.ksby.com/news/local-news/man-who-bought-winning-powerball-ticket-in-morro-bay-shares-plans-for-699-8m-jackpot
Kindly forward letter of acceptance to the email address below with these Code - CHARITY/453/LJ2022 as subject of your email.
Mrs Martha Ballard
Email address : marthamarthaballard1@gmail.com
Scott Godfrey Foundation Legal representative.
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Anti-fraud resources:
