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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:
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Gerard Sibanda <gerardsibandaa@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2022 14:16:38 -0100
Subject: Greetings
From Mr.Gerard,I am contacting you independently of my investigation
and no one is informed of this communication. I need your urgent
assistance in transferring the sum of $11.3million immediately to your
private account.The money has been here in our Bank lying dormant for
years now without anybody coming for the claim of it.
I want to release the money to you as a relative to our deceased
customer (the account owner) who died along with his supposed Next of
Kin on 16th October 2005. The Banking laws here do not allow such
money to stay more than 18years, because the money will be recalled to
the bank treasury account as unclaimed funds.
By indicating your interest i will send you the full details on how
the business will be executed.
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Anti-fraud resources:
