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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:
- "to your nominated bank account" (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)
- ",500,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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)
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
- They don't notify winners by email.
- You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
- They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
- They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
- They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
- They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
- They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
Fraud email example:
From: INFO RCB <charledhedo@gmail.com>
Date:
Subject:
Dear Beneficiary,
This is to inform you that a Lottery Winning payment in the amount of
($35,500,000.00 usd) Thirty five Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars
was legally approved and deposited with Royal Customary Bank (RCB),
The lottery won via online active email address selected from sponsor
of Coca Cola Company award winnings.
It was registered with your email address by the Lottery Board
Executive Directors Of Coca-Cola Company and they instructed this Bank
to process the transfer through opening an online account for you
where your funds will be credited with your Winning funds then the
instruction will be given to you on how to transfer the funds to your
nominated bank account.
You are advised to confirm your information such as below if you want
to receive your funds with immediate effect:
First Name :
Last Name:
Country:
State of Origin:
Nationality:
Home Address:
Passport Copy:
Phone Number:
Thank you for choosing Royal Customary Bank and I will give you my
WhatSapp number.
Yours Faithfully,
David Mark
The Managing Director and CEO.
Royal Customary Bank
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Anti-fraud resources:
