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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:
- "courier service" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: VERY IMPORTANT AND URGENT <officemail54622@gmail.com>
Reply-To: patriciamahoney294@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 02:05:23 -0700
Subject: Very important and urgent !!
Very important and urgent !!
I am patricia mahoney, the new united states ambassador to benin. Today i
received the total sum of $ 2.4m usd from the government of benin as
compensation to you for what you went through on behalf of your country.
This email was sent to you to officially inform you that, during our
investigation, we discovered that your email address was automatically
selected as one of the victim's email addresses.
We also want to inform you that your fund has been successfully cleared and
credited to a $ 2.4 million dollar visa atm card that will be delivered to
you via courier services.
This office will send you a mastercard that you will use to withdraw your
funds at any atm machine center or mastercard outlet around the world with
a maximum of $ 5000usd per day.
we now recommend that you resend your information to us below before
proceeding.
1.full name:
2.full address:
3. Country:
4. Phone:
5.occupation:
6.date of birth:
Yours in service
Ambassador patricia mahoney.
United states ambassador to benin.
Direct tel: + 229-69728179.
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Anti-fraud resources:
