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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:
- "waiting for your urgent response" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: IMFservice <philipsazu@gmail.com>
Reply-To: infofranks9@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2023 07:57:04 -0700
Subject: Payment confirmation
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Attention:Sir/Ma,
Congratulation. our Europe corresponding paying bank (ABC
International Bank Plc) just inform us that they are set to
transferred your compensation
funds $2.5Million to you, but all their effort to reach you was not successful,
Do you change your contact information ? or have you received the
funds ? please reconfirm your information such as contact
address and telephone number , your name still showing on our
unpaid list.
Awaiting for your urgent response as we are reconciling debt payment.
Ms. Kristalina Georgieva
IMF Managing Director,Washington USA
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Anti-fraud resources:
