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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "trunk box" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "trunk boxes" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "diplomatic delivery" ("diplomats" who perform deliveries of cash or other valuables to you only exist in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Paul Pollard Pedro R <paulpollard55@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mailmepollard@rediffmail.com
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2022 14:24:51 -0700
Subject: Your Abandoned Package
Hello Owner of Abandoned Package
I am Diplomat Paul Pollard Pedro R. from the United Nations Security
Council, UK Association and my diplomatic mission is based on
Inter-Country shipments of classified items between North, South and
Central American with other European and the Middle East Nations.
At this moment, I am in California Los Angeles, the United States of
America for a Diplomatic Delivery of a classified material as
requested by the Security Council Members. However, I must confess
that during my arrival at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX),
a routine check of all abandoned UN items was carried out with the
head supervisor baggage service unit at the airport Storage Vault due
to my role in diplomatic delivery missions and we discovered an
abandoned shipment from Europe through transit at the London Heathrow
Airport (LHR) which from the Customs X-ray Ultra Scan results reveals
that an undisclosed sum of money in two metal trunk boxes weighing
approximately 280 pounds with Assumptions of 5.5 Million To 6 Million
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Anti-fraud resources:
