|
|
joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
|
|
"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:
- "a security company " (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. )
- "trunk box" (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)
- "hundred thousand united state 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)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Quana <quanna@rediffmail.com>
Reply-To: qquanna@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 10:23:49 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Greetings from Quana.
Good day,
I am Miss. Quana Bahati, young medical student from Ivory Coast Africa. I would like to go into a partnership with you. It is my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I intend to establish in your country. Though I have not met with you before but I believe one has to risk confident in succeed sometimes in life. There is this huge amount (us$4.8million) Four million eight hundred thousand united state dollars which my late father deposited on my name as the beneficiary and only child in a security company (firm) here in Abidjan before his death.
Now I have decided to invest this money in your country or anywhere safe enough outside Ivory Coast for security and political reasons. I want you to help me retrieve and claim this fund from the security company and transfer it to your country for investment purposes, since the money is deposited in a trunk box as family valuables for export.
I want you to stand as my father business partner and my foreign beneficiary in claiming the trunk box from the security company here for to me to leave this country and meet you over there.
I am honourably seeking your assistance in the following ways:
(1) Can you honestly help me as an orphan?
(2) To serve as a guardian of this fund?
(3) To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education and to secure a resident permit in your country?
If you can be of assistance to me I will be pleased to offer you a reasonable percentage of the total fund, and again we are going to invest together and share what ever profit we make together, I want you to get back to me as soon as you can so that I will tell you the next and more details of the transaction.
I am waiting for your soonest response.
Yours Sincerely,
Quana Bahati.
|
Anti-fraud resources: