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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Serda Balta" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <talktohsbcstanbul@mail2turkey.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2010 03:20:23 +0100
Subject: YOUR FUND TRANSFER
Istanbul Branch,Turkey.
Customer 24/7 Hotline:+905428846025
Attn:
This is to inform you that your long awaited fund which was supposed to be transfered to you by the African Banks and various attempt to get it to you through ATM Card was halted as the inability of the handler and also their selfish interests to rip people off, of their hard earned money.
We are glad to be of service to you as our bank has been appointed to make sure this fund gets to you within 48 working hours so far all the needed requirements are fullfilled by you.
The fund will be send to you through our worldwide swift Visa Atm card or wire transfer.Kindly reply to this email with all your details for verifications.
Regards
Serda Balta
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Anti-fraud resources:
