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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:
- "western union" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "mtcn" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
Fraud email example:
From: Alexander Classen <abdullahirabiu165@gmail.com>
Date:
Subject:
--
We are about to send your first Payment of $5000usd today, So kindly
reconfirm your receiver's name information to the Western Union office
for
the approval of our fund payment of($10.5Million USD) to be sign and
release to you immediately to you. send the
below information to them: Note that your payment files will be returned
to the IMF within 24 hours this is the instruction given to us by the IMF.
You can see that your First payment show that is been on-hold by the
sender information.MTCN:202-935-8982 sender name .Senders linda rose,
Your Country::
Your Telephone: No:
Your Address::
Your Passport Id: :
Text me here
redacted@domain.name)
Our Western Union Office will release your payment to you and the maximum
amount you receiving each day from today is $5000 usd daily until the funds
complete transferred. Once we receive your information. The transfer
will commence
The IMF is compensating all the scam victims ($10.5Million USD) each
and your email address was found in the scam victim's list
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Anti-fraud resources:
