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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:
- "million dollars" (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)
- "power of attorney" (with your bank details and a power of attorney form criminals sometimes empty bank accounts)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
Fraud email example:
From: louis dejoy <darrellgausskpq90@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dejoylouis2@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2023 05:28:53 +0100
Subject: attention
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Dear I want to let you know that we receive another email right now
from a young man called Mr.Richard Andre Curry he said that you got an
accident and died yesterday that before you died in the hospital you
gave him the power of attorney to inherit your atm card worth
$2.2million dollars in our custody and he said that he is ready to pay
for the VAT charge duty so that we can hand over the fund to him, we
need a confirmation to this and if we do not hear from you within a
couple of 6 hours we are going to take the action by handing him over
the atm card . Get back to me immediately with your Full information
reason is to know if you are alive or not such as: Receiver's
Name_______________ Address: ________________ Country/state:
____________ Phone Number: _____________ I.D Card:_____________
Gender__________ Nearest airport to land___________ Name and phone
number of your next of kin__________
Best Regard Director of Homeland Security ).
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Anti-fraud resources:
